


I'll Cover You

by SlytherinPirate



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: M/M, also everyone can sing, and act, even frank, eventual jasico
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-21
Updated: 2015-10-31
Packaged: 2018-02-22 01:59:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 20
Words: 42,223
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2490314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SlytherinPirate/pseuds/SlytherinPirate
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Basically I searched around and couldn't find any Percy Jackson musical fanfics, so I took it upon myself to make one. If you don't know some of the musicals, you can often skip over the chapters. But you should read the notes at the beginning of each chapter to see if it's important or not. Also, this is an AU in which Percy doesn't know about Nico's feelings, and also Will isn't really in the picture all that much. Enjoy!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Maybe

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first show they do is Annie! Nico gets a bit of a shock at how a comic strip from his childhood was adapted into a world-famous musical.

It all started the day Leo decided that Camp Half-Blood should have a musical four times a year. Once he got the idea, he was completely set on it. He went to Chiron and appealed to Mr. D (who, being the god of theatre, approved of the idea) and then, not a few weeks later, audition notices were posted for the musical ‘Annie.’ I, of course, didn’t audition. I was planning to take a trip back to the Underworld a few days after rehearsals started, so I couldn’t have been in the show, even if I had wanted to.

I should probably mention now that my name is Nico diAngelo. I’m a son of Hades and kind of a loner. Well, more than kind of. I tend to avoid people a lot. Particularly people with dark, wavy hair, sea green eyes, rippling muscles, and you know what, let’s just say that I don’t talk to people very often. Nowadays, I even especially try to avoid certain blonde-haired blue-eyed sons of Jupiter named Jason, simply out of annoyance since the guy keeps trying to get me to talk to him. Unfortunately, avoiding him doesn’t seem to work very well.

“Hey, Nico!” I sighed and turned around to look at Jason, irritatedly.

“What do you want, Grace?” I asked. Jason shrugged.

“Just wondering if you were gonna audition for the musical.”

“Do I look like I sing?” I rolled my eyes at him. “Are you trying out, then?”

“Nah.” He waved a hand. “I know a bunch of people who are, though. Hazel, Reyna, Frank, Annabeth, Leo, Piper, Julia, Clarisse, and Thalia are all auditioning.” I probably should have mentioned earlier that Chiron decided to involve both demigod camps in this whole ‘musical’ business. The two camps are going to switch off who hosts the thing. The first one will be Camp Half-blood, but the next will be Camp Jupiter. “So what do you think the musical after this is gonna be?” Jason asked, putting his hands in his pockets and looking at me. I shrugged.

“Probably something weird.” Jason gave me a look.

“Do you really not like musicals?”

“Look, I’ve never really had any experience with musicals. I’ve never even seen one.” In truth, as a kid, I had always been interested in seeing them but I never actually got to go, which was disappointing.

“Dude, we’re totally gonna see everyone in Annie, okay?” Jason grinned at me.

“Sure, whatever,” I grumbled.

“Alright, it’s a date!” Jason laughed. I turned scarlet.

“Wait but-” I spluttered. “You… You have a girlfriend!!” Jason merely smiled.

“I was joking, Nico,” he said. I glared at him.

“It wasn’t funny,” I huffed, turning to face away from him. He chuckled.

“Whatever. See you around!” And with that, he walked away. Finally.

“Nico, Nico, Nico!”

It was a few days after auditions and I turned around to see my half-sister, Hazel, running up to me, looking very excited. “Nico, Nico!”

“What is it?” I asked. She grinned at me.

“I-I got the lead! In the play! I’m Annie!” She looked positively ecstatic. I gave her a small smile, which is more of a smile than I usually give.

“That’s great, Hazel. Good job.” She grabbed my hand.

“Oh, you’ve got to come see the cast list, it’s great!” She dragged me over to the amphitheater where a bulletin board had been set up. On the board was a notice, presumably the cast list.

ANNIE CAST LIST

Annie - Hazel Levesque

Miss Hannigan - Reyna Ramirez-Arellano

Oliver Warbucks - Frank Zhang

Grace - Annabeth Chase

“Rooster” Hannigan - Leo Valdez

Lily St. Regis - Piper McLean

Molly - Julia

Pepper - Clarisse La Rue

Duffy - Thalia Grace

I looked at the people on the list before looking at the characters. I probably wouldn’t recognise any of them, as this ‘Annie’ was a modern-ish musical… Wait a moment.

“Oliver Warbucks… Is he… He’s not… Annie…” I turned to Hazel. “Hazel, in this musical, does Annie call Oliver Warbucks ‘Daddy Warbucks’?” I asked. Hazel grinned at me.

“Oh Nico, I forgot you’ve probably read the Little Orphan Annie comics, too!” I stared in disbelief at the cast list.

“They made a musical of Little Orphan Annie?...” I remembered, as a kid growing up in the 1930s, the comic strip ‘Little Orphan Annie’ appeared in the newspaper every week. The main character was Annie, and there was a rich man that she called ‘Daddy’ Warbucks.

“When I was reading the script at auditions, I almost couldn’t believe it! I actually knew this story! Well, some of it, anyways. It’s changed a lot.”

“It has?” I asked. Hazel nodded.

“You’ll see when you come see the show. That is… Are you coming to the show?” I nodded.

“I’m going with Jason,” I replied. She smiled.

“You two are becoming quite close aren’t you?” I tensed at her words.

“We’re not-”

“I’m glad to see you making friends… It makes me happy..” I sighed.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever…” Anything to make my sister happy….

“Hey, Nico, I’m gonna go tell the others.” She smiled. I smiled back a bit. She really did seem happy. I nodded at her before watching as she scampered off to tell the rest of our friends the good news. As I began to walk back to my cabin, I found myself actually looking forward to seeing the show in a few weeks.

A few weeks later, I shadow-traveled back to camp in a panic. It’s difficult to tell what day it is in the Underworld, so I was worried I had missed the show. As I started walking quickly around, trying to find someone to ask what date it was, I heard someone calling my name.

“Nico!”

I turned around. Jason was waving at me and smiling. Seeing that he had gotten my attention, he trotted over to me. “Nico, you’re back!” He grinned. “So we’re still on for the show tomorrow?”

“The show is tomorrow?” I asked. Jason nodded. “Thank the gods,” I said, relieved. “I was worried I had missed it..” Jason shook his head.

“Nope. It’s tomorrow evening. It’s gonna be awesome. I snuck a look at the set. It’s pretty cool.” He looked at me. “So, we’re still going together, yeah?” I sighed and nodded.

“I guess, yeah. As friends.”

“As friends,” Jason agreed with a smile. He bit his lip as he looked at my face. “Jeez, you look tired. You should get some sleep. Shadow travel really wears you out, huh?” I nodded.

“Yeah… Yeah, I’ll go to sleep… See you tomorrow, Jason.”

“See you!” And with that, I walked back to my cabin before plopping down on my bed and immediately passing out.

The next evening, Jason found me in the dining pavilion after dinner.

“Ready to see the show?” he asked, with that stupid smile of his. I nodded. I was actually really looking forward to seeing Hazel in the show. I walked with Jason to the amphitheater, which they had renovated a bit to make it into a more modern stage. We took seats in the third row and were soon joined by none other than Percy Jackson. “Hey guys!” He sat down next to me. “Ready to see the show? I’m so excited, Annabeth’s gonna be great!” He leaned on me a bit, causing me to scoot away from him, red-faced, and over more towards Jason. “I haven’t seen you in a while, Nico,” Percy said, looking at me. “How’s the Underworld?”

“Oh, you know, a little dark, a little gloomy, and as always, full of dead people,” I said, apathetically. Jason laughed. Percy grinned as well. He suddenly looked somewhere behind me.

“Oh shit, guys, look,” he said, pointing. Jason and I looked around. To our surprise, we saw mine and Jason’s dads walking into the theater.

“Holy shit,” I said, watching my father walk towards a seat near the back. He didn’t seem to notice me.

“I guess they came to see Hazel and Thalia, huh?” Jason said, watching his father. I nodded. The rest of the audience soon filled in and the lights went out as the overture began to play. The curtain went up to reveal the set, which right now was a few beds, all in a row. I noticed the people that seemed to be sleeping in the beds. Suddenly one of them sat up and started crying. I recognised them to be Julia. Two of the others sat up as well, looking annoyed. Clarisse and Thalia! They shouted at Julia to be quiet, before being told to shush themselves by another girl. They then started arguing with the other girl when a fourth girl stood up and shouted at them to stop fighting unless they wanted ‘Ms. Hannigan’ to come up there. I grinned at my sister on the stage. I never knew she was such a good actress. I sat back, watching as the show unfolded. I hoped that Percy didn’t realised that I was leaning against him…

After the show, I waited with the rest of the audience outside the amphitheater to congratulate Hazel and the rest of the cast when they came out. I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned around to see my father standing there, smiling a bit.

“Nico, did you know Hazel was that talented?” he asked. I shook my head.

“She’s an amazing singer…” I stated. My father nodded.

“Say, Nico, whatever the next musical is, I think you should try out. I’ve heard singing can be an outlet for things like anger, sadness, heartache… Things like that. Besides, I’m sure Hazel would like it too..” I looked up at him.

“You think so? But I don’t know if I’d even be good at acting.” I knew that I was an okay singer, but I had never tried acting before.

“Just try out. It won’t hurt to do that.” He smiled at me- actually smiled. It was nice to see my father looking at me with such a happy expression. I nodded. I didn’t know whether or not I would actually audition, but I might as well humour my dad.

A little while later, I was walking back to my cabin, one particular song stuck in my head.

“ _Betcha’ they’re young, betcha’ they’re smart, bet they collect things like ashtrays and art. Betcha’ they’re good, why shouldn’t they be? Their one mistake was giving up me… So maybe now it’s time, or maybe when I wake, they’ll be there calling me baby… Maybe…_ ” I thought about my own parents. My mother died years ago… Gods, I miss her. I wish she was still around, to comfort me in times of trouble.. But then again, I don’t know how she’d react to certain… things about me. Then there was my father. He was still alive, and he talked to me sometimes like just now after the show, but most of the time he was busy with the Underworld or with Persephone and over all, he didn’t really seem to pay much attention to me. I wished I had different parents. Like, I wish I had a mom like Percy’s. I had met Sally Jackson. She was so caring, and she would love Percy no matter who or what he was. That’s what a mother should be like. I don’t even know how mine would have reacted to stuff. But I could tell that if I were Sally’s son, she would love me no matter what. I sighed. “ _So maybe now this prayer’s the last one of its kind. Won’t you please come get your baby… Maybe…_ ”


	2. Purpose

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This time, they're doing Avenue Q! And Nico is a little bit surprised at the role that Percy gets.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> #mention of puppet sex  
> #that's such a weird tag lol

You know how I said I didn’t know if I was actually going to audition for the next musical or not? Well, here I was. Auditioning for some ridiculous puppet show. What was it called again? Avenue Q, Sesame Street wannabe. At least, that’s what I thought. I had no idea what the real nature of this show was until I looked it up and read the wikipedia page. Unfortunately, by the time I had done that, I had already promised Hazel that I would audition.

Apparently, ‘Avenue Q’ wasn’t just some innocent puppet show. It was about a puppet named Princeton who moves into an apartment in New York and makes friends with the other people that live there- a girl puppet named Kate, some monster named Trekkie, a guy named Brian, his Japanese fiancee Christmas Eve, and these two guys named Rod and Nicky. Oh, and Rod was gay. I was gonna be so pissed if I got that role. Also, apparently someone named Gary Coleman was the superintendent? Apparently he was a celebrity back in like, the 90s or something. I don’t know. Anyways, I had signed up to audition for this show, and was now reading over the music they had given me. For males, we had a choice between exerpts from three songs- Purpose (sung by Princeton), If You Were Gay (sung by Nicky), and I Am Not Wearing Underwear Today (sung by Brian). Well, I definitely wasn’t going to sing If You Were Gay. And I also didn’t really feel like singing about underwear, so I decided to go with Purpose instead. I was going over the song when Hazel entered the cabin, also holding music sheets.

“Hey, Nico!” she said, cheerily. I waved at her in response. “What are you singing for the audition?” she asked.

“Purpose,” I replied. “What are the girls’ options?” She rifled through her papers.

“Let’s see. We have a choice between Special, There’s a Fine, Fine, Line, and The More You Ruv Someone. I’m singing Fine Fine Line.” She smiled. I nodded. From what I could remember from the wikipedia page, The More You Ruv someone was sung by Christmas Eve, There’s a Fine, Fine, Line was sung by Kate, and Special was sung by a puppet named ‘Lucy the Slut.’ I had raised an eyebrow when I saw that name. Hazel began humming her song as I looked back at mine. Gods, I hoped I wouldn’t fuck up this audition too badly…

And now there I was standing with Jason and Percy, waiting to audition. Apparently, after seeing Annie, they had decided to audition for Avenue Q as well.

“What song are you singing, Nico?” asked Jason.

“Purpose,” I replied. “What about you guys?”

“Ah, I’m singing I’m Not Wearing Underwear Today,” replied Percy with a chuckle.

“I’m singing If You Were Gay.” Jason grinned at me. I glared at him. The doors soon opened and we went inside to see the auditioners, aka Dionysus and Aphrodite. Dionysus, being the god of theater, had directed Annie, but it was apparently extremely stressful, so he employed Aphrodite’s help for this next one. This was sure to be interesting..

“Sit down, please, everyone,” said Dionysus. We all sat down. “Now, when we are ready to begin, I will call on volunteers to go up and sing for us. If there are no volunteers, I will choose at random. Is that clear?” We nodded. “Alright, now may I have a volunteer?”

I was shaking a bit on the day that the cast list was supposed to go up. I didn’t know which would be worse, not getting a part, or getting the part of Rod. That would be so embarrassing… I chewed on my lip as I made my way over to the amphitheater. I saw a crowd of people around the noticeboard and got increasingly nervous. When I approached, I looked over Hazel’s head to see the cast list.

AVENUE Q CAST LIST

Brian - Dakota

Christmas Eve - Drew Tanaka

Gary Coleman - Hazel Levesque

Kate Monster - Piper McLean

Lucy the Slut - Annabeth Chase

Rod - Percy Jackson

Nicky - Jason Grace

Princeton - Nico di Angelo

Mrs. Thistletwat - Clarisse La Rue

Trekkie Monster - Leo Valdez

My eyes went to Nicky first. Jason. Shit.. If I ended up being Rod… I looked up at Rod’s name, dreading whose name I would see beside it. Wait. Percy? Rod was…. Percy. Then where the fuck was I? Was I even on the list? I looked at the other male characters. Brian, no. Gary Coleman, no, that was Hazel. Huh, weird. Princeton… Holy shit. I was Princeton. How the fuck? Wasn’t Princeton like, the main character? I heard laughter from behind me. I turned around to see Percy and Jason.

“Dude!” said Percy to Jason. “I totally have a crush on you!” I gritted my teeth. Jason chuckled a bit, though it was a little half-hearted.

“Yeah… Haha..” He smiled at Percy before looking at me. “Nico! You got Princeton!” He reached out for a high five. I blushed a bit and high-fived him, nodding.

“Yeah… I dunno how, though. I can’t act very well,” I said with a shrug. Percy rolled his eyes.

“Dude, you’re an awesome actor. I saw you at auditions. You’re a great singer, too!” This only made me blush harder. I mumbled a thanks before going off to find someplace quiet. Rehearsals were going to be quite interesting.

I was right. Rehearsals were interesting. Also Percy can play a gay character really well. I didn’t know he was such a good actor. Watching him and Jason rehearse ‘If You Were Gay’ was actually pretty entertaining.

The director soon got me and Piper together to discuss what we would be doing. AKA, puppet sex. I was incredibly flustered about this. I was blushing the whole time Mr. D was talking about it. He said that with most youth programs, they cut out the puppet sex scene, but the majority of the cast was over 18, and he knew that everyone was mature enough to handle it. I knew that Gary Coleman was the one who sang ‘You Can Be As Loud As The Hell You Want’ though, and I wasn’t sure how Hazel was going to do that without collapsing in a blushing mess. After all, her new role was much, much different from little orphan Annie.

After one of the rehearsals, I was walking back to the dining pavilion with Jason.

“Man, this is one of the only times I’m actually glad you don’t like girls,” he said, chuckling. I raised an eyebrow.

“And why is that?” I asked.

“Well.” He shrugged. “If Percy were the one having puppet sex with my girlfriend, I’d be kinda pissed.” I blushed again.

“Oh, shut up. It’s not like I asked for the role.”

“Well you did audition.” He chuckled again. I sighed.

A few rehearsals later, I was laying in my bed at night, going over one of my songs.

“ _Purpose. It’s that little flame, that lights a fire under your ass. Purpose. It keeps you going strong, like a car with a full tank of gas. Everyone else has a purpose, so whats mine?_ ” What was my purpose? Being a demigod, I had always been in one battle after another, quest after quest. So I never really stopped to think about my purpose. Maybe Princeton was wrong. Maybe everyone didn’t have a purpose. But if I did have a purpose… What would it be? Probably something stupid.. I sighed and rolled over before going to sleep.

It was the opening night of the show. I was waiting offstage left and I was incredibly nervous. Thanks to the Hephaestus cabin, the set looked amazing. It almost looked like an actual apartment block in New York. I looked over my script one more time before picking up my Princeton puppet and putting him on. I began warming up with him, saying things while moving Princeton as well. It was actually pretty hard to do, moving yourself and a puppet the exact same way at the exact same time. I gasped a bit as the lights went out and the orchestra began to play. This was it… This was when I was going to make a royal fool out of myself.

The show actually went pretty well. I messed up maybe once, and Piper covered for me so no one noticed. I was still blushing at the whole puppet sex thing, but Piper and I had decided a couple of weeks ago to just relax and have fun with it, because they were just puppets, and we were just friends anyways, so it didn’t really matter. After the show, I put Princeton down in his spot backstage before going out to meet everyone who had come to see the show. I saw my dad and began walking towards him, feeling a warm feeling in my stomach. He had come to see us- me and Hazel. Hazel made it first and smiled up at our father. He smiled back, congratulating her on her performance. He then turned to me and smiled as well.

“You did wonderfully, Nico. I knew you would. I hope you’ll audition for the next one?” I smiled a bit.

“I’ll have to see what it is first. I’m not doing any more puppet sex.” My father cleared his throat at this. It occurred to me that it was probably really awkward for him to watch his son onstage having puppet sex.

“Well, yes. But I have a feeling that the next show will be a bit more innocent,” my father said.

“I hope so,” I replied with a nod.


	3. Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now, the musical is Beauty and the Beast. When paired together for roles, Nico and Jason become closer. Also Jason is a ketchup bottle.

My dad was right. The next show was much, much more innocent. Now, we were doing Beauty and the Beast, which was a pretty big step away from Avenue Q. Not that anyone was complaining. A few months ago, Jason, Frank, and Piper sat me and Hazel down for a disney marathon. One of the movies we watched was Beauty and the Beast, which turned out to be one of my favourites (they also wanted to watch Snow White, but I had already seen it in a movie theater when I was 9, so). For this audition, there were only two songs per gender instead of three. For the boys, we got a choice between ‘Gaston’ and ‘Be Our Guest’. For the girls, they got ‘Home’ or ‘Beauty and the Beast’. I didn’t particularly feel like learning a French accent, so I chose to learn ‘Gaston’ as my song.

Everyone knew who was going to be Belle by the time auditions were over. Annabeth’s performance of ‘Home’ was stunning, and her personality even fit the character perfectly. Somehow though, I didn’t think Percy was going to get to be the Beast. I think Jason fit that role better, anyways. Maybe Percy would end up being Gaston?

I was wrong. Jason wasn’t the Beast. Percy wasn’t Gaston. However, I was right in guessing that Annabeth would be Belle. But I really wasn’t expecting the role that I got. I looked at the cast list, extremely bemused at some of the casting choices.

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST CAST LIST

Belle - Annabeth Chase

Beast - Frank Zhang

Gaston - Jason Grace

Le Fou - Nico di Angelo

Lumiere - Leo Valdez

Cogsworth - Percy Jackson

Mrs. Potts - Piper McLean

Chip - Hazel Levesque

Yep, I was Le Fou, that guy that always followed around Gaston. And Gaston was Jason. I was going to be following around Jason for the whole show. I was dreading it already. Percy was Cogsworth. It was going to be funny to see him trying to put on a British accent. But back to the point. I didn’t particularly like Le Fou. I was supposed to play an idiot! Ugh. I would have rather had Hazel’s part, Chip. Hell, I would rather have been Lumiere. But then again, I did sing ‘Gaston’ for my audition, the song that Le Fou sings. I sighed. Whatever. I decided I would try to have fun with it, just like I did with Avenue Q. From behind me I heard singing.

“ _No one’s slick as Gaston, no one’s quick as Gaston!_ ” I turned around. Jason was laughing as he sang his song. I walked over to him, irritated.

“ _No one’s head is incredibly thick as Gaston’s,_ ” I sang back. I changed the lyrics a little bit to make them more appropriate for Jason. Jason chuckled.

“Dude, I am so pumped about this role. This is gonna be so fun!” He grinned. I sighed.

“Yeah, yeah. Whatever.” I rolled my eyes.

“Come on, Nico! You get to sing an awesome song about how amazing I am.” I raised an eyebrow at him.

“ _No one quits like Gaston, or eats shit like Gaston. No one blunders around like a twit like Gaston._ ” Piper heard the lyrics that I had made up and laughed. Jason blushed but laughed as well.

“You should ask Mr. D if you can rewrite the song.” He chuckled.

As it turned out, Le Fou wasn’t really my only role. ‘Be Our Guest’ was actually a full cast number, so they put me in a marshmallow costume (which I did not appreciate very much). Jason came up to me on the first day I was wearing it and chuckled.

“Nico, you’re adorable.” I turned scarlet.

“I’m not adorable! I’m a fucking marshmallow!” I glowered at him.

“I know! It’s so cute! Can I hug you?” Jason smiled. I began to protest, but it was too late. Jason’s arms were around me, engulfing my marshmallow self into his warmth. He was so goddamn irritating. I huffed when he pulled away.

“I may look ridiculous, but I don’t look nearly as stupid as you.” Jason turned as red as the ketchup bottle he was wearing. I chuckled. If anything was adorable, that was. … Wait, what? Never mind. “A-Anyways, I gotta go. Aphrodite just called places.” Jason smiled at me and I left to go to stage right. Why was my heart beating so fast?

“ _Is this home? Is this where I should learn to be happy? Never dreamed that a home could be dark and cold. I was told, every day in my childhood, even when we grow old, home will be where the heart is, never were words so true. My heart’s far, far away. Home is too._ ” Where was my home? It didn’t feel like it was at Camp Jupiter. I had a rank and a title here, but that was all. It wasn’t in the Underworld. That’s just where I went when I didn’t really have anywhere else to go. Was it at Camp Half-Blood? That was the last place me and Bianca were together.. So maybe. “ _Is this home? Am I here for a day or forever? Shut away, from the world until who knows when. Oh, but then, as my life has been altered once, it can change again. Build higher walls around me, change every lock and key. Nothing lasts, nothing holds, all of me. My heart's far, far away, home and free…_ ”

I tripped. I can’t believe I fucking tripped. During the show. Gods dammit. I can only be thankful that I was playing Le Fou, and it was in-character for him to trip. Otherwise, I would have been so fucked. Oh gods, that was embarrassing. I nearly made Jason crack up onstage. It was during ‘Gaston,’ too! I was fuming after the show. I couldn’t believe I had fucking tripped. Jason came up and clapped me on the shoulder.

“You were great, Nico!” He grinned.

“I tripped,” I muttered, scowling.

“Yeah, so?” Jason shrugged. “It was funny! And it was in-character, so everybody thought you did it on purpose.” I huffed. Whatever. It was still embarrassing. “Hey..” Jason put a hand on my back and rubbed a bit, comfortingly. Somehow, I didn’t mind. “At least you didn’t have to wear a ketchup bottle…” I’ll have to admit, that made me chuckle a bit.

“Yeah, I guess…” I looked up at Jason. I was actually kinda grateful to have a friend like him. “You know.. I think I’m gonna take a break from the spring show. I’ll audition again in the summer.” I shrugged. Jason nodded.

“Yeah, I think I’ll do the same… Are you gonna go back to the Underworld though?” he asked.

“Probably..” I replied. Jason frowned.

“You know, I’m gonna be staying at Camp Jupiter for a while, to help Reyna and Frank. You could stay there, if you want…” I looked up at him. He seemed sincere about it.

“I… I’ll think about it.” I shrugged again. “But we’re definitely gonna see the show, even if we’re not in it.” Jason grinned.

“Definitely.”


	4. Nowadays

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now they're doing Chicago! Nico, Jason, and Percy are only in one number, so they spend a lot of the show playing truth or dare out by the concession stand.  
> This chapter is KIND of important, but you don't really need to read it if you don't want to.

So, even though I didn’t actually audition for the spring musical, I was called aside by Aphrodite and asked if I would be a dancer in one of the musical numbers. I decided, why not? It was only one number. What Aphrodite didn’t tell me, however, was that in that number, I would be running into a knife. In fact, I would be running into a knife ten times.

The new musical was Chicago. It was set in the 1920s and it was about a young woman named Roxie Hart who murdered a man she was having an affair with because he lied to her. I mean, it was pretty shitty of him to do, so I can’t entirely blame her. But anyways, then she went to prison and had to get a lawyer and all that.

The number that I was called for was called the ‘Cell Block Tango.’ The song was about six inmates singing about the reasons they were in jail- killing men. The guys who were called for this number were me, Jason, and Percy. We were each assigned to two girls, two stories. I was assigned to ‘pop’ and ‘squish.’ Pop was a girl who killed her husband because he kept chewing- no, not chewing- popping, gum. She was to be played by Piper. Squish, was a girl who knifed her husband because he thought she was cheating on him. She was to be played by Clarisse. Of course, the male dancers weren’t actually going to be hurt. It would be more like interpretive dance.

I was also an incredibly minor part of another part, Lipschitz. Percy was the main male in this story, but this one was about a girl who had killed her husband for cheating on her with numerous people. She listed the names in the song, one of them being Irving, a boy’s name. In the dance, we were going to have people twirl up one-by-one as the names were listed and Percy was going to kiss them on the hand. And apparently, I was going to be one of those people. Great. It really didn’t help that now, whenever we saw each other outside rehearsals, Percy would say “Irving,” and give me an over-exaggerated, super suggestive wink, which never failed to make me blush.

Oh! Before I forget, here’s the cast list:

CHICAGO CAST LIST

Roxie Hart - Annabeth Chase

Velma Kelly - Reyna Ramirez-Arellano

Billy Flynn - Leo Valdez

Mama Morton - Hazel Levesque

Amos Hart - Frank Zhang

Pop - Piper (Nico)

Six - Thalia (Jason)

Squish - Clarisse (Nico)

Uh-uh - Lou Ellen (Percy)

Cicero - Reyna (Jason, Hylla)

Lipschitz - Drew (Percy)

Leo actually got a lead role, which was pretty cool. He was playing Billy Flynn, Roxie Hart’s lawyer. Speaking of Roxie, I had to admit that it was going to be fun to see Annabeth playing such a bitchy role. She and Reyna were both super talented. It was going to be a great show.

Let’s get something straight here. I had never really danced much in my life before this show. I mean, I danced in a few numbers in the last show, Beauty and the Beast, but besides that, nothing. For this, I had to learn how to do a mixture of tango and ballet. I had to learn it both with Piper, and with Clarisse. Piper made me feel inadequate, because she was already pretty good at dancing, but it seemed like Clarisse and I were in the same boat on the subject, which made me feel a little better. By the time the show rolled around, we had the moves down and it actually looked pretty cool. The only thing that I was actually nervous about was when Percy was going to kiss my hand, because I was afraid I might blush and fall off the stage.

 

None of that happened, though. Well, I did blush, but I didn’t fall offstage. So that was good. Overall, the song went pretty damn well, if I do say so myself. Jason messed up a tiny bit during Cicero, but Hylla covered for him. Afterwards, the three of us were in charge of selling stuff at the concession stand during intermission. We had to stay there during Act II too, so there was a bit of time to relax.

“Guys, let’s play a game,” Jason said, looking at me and Percy. Percy grinned.

“Awesome idea, bro! Let’s play a game.” He looked at me. I sighed.

“Sure, I guess. What game?” I asked.

“Truth or dare!” Percy answered immediately. I groaned inwardly. “Truth or dare, Jason?” Percy asked.

“Uh, truth, I guess.”

“What’s a rumour that’s been spread about you?” Jason thought about it.

“Let’s see… Well there were rumours that I was secretly going out with Reyna for a few years.” He shrugged. “Truth or dare, Nico?”

“Dare.” I frowned, not sure if I would regret the decision to pick dare. Jason smirked.

“Kiss the first person who says a word starting with the letter ‘S’ on the cheek, starting now.” I gaped at him.

“What? Not fair!” Jason merely chuckled. I turned to Percy, blushing. “Truth or dare?”

“Truth.” He smiled.

“What’s the weirdest thing you’ve been in the newspaper for?” I asked.

“Hm…” Percy thought. “Well, there was that one time that I fought a chihuahua and then fell off of the S-” He stopped himself, blushing. “The arch in that city in Missouri.” He chuckled. I raised an eyebrow.

“Seriously? You fell off of the St. Louis Arch?” I asked. He nodded.

“Truth or dare, Nico?”

“Truth,” I replied, not wanting to take another risk.

“When you’re older, do you want to have kids?” I blinked, thinking. I had never actually thought about it.

“I… I don’t know… Maybe….” I shrugged. “Truth or dare, Jason?”

“Truth,” he said. I guess all of us were picking truth.

“What’s the best thing you can cook or bake?”

“Uh, probably mac n’ cheese. I make it pretty well, actually.” He smiled. “Truth or dare, Percy?”

“Truth.” Again.

“Are you keeping anything from Annabeth? Like a thing you don’t want her to know?” Jason asked. Percy blushed and slowly nodded. He was keeping secrets from Annabeth? I wonder what they could be…

“Truth or dare, Jason?”

“Truth.”

“Do you go to bed with a teddy bear or another animal plushie?” Percy asked. Jason blushed.

“Y-yeah, sometimes, I guess…” Percy and I both looked at him. He narrowed his eyes. “What? It’s not that weird.” Percy shook his head.

“No, it’s not, but… You said ‘sometimes’.” Jason’s eyes widened, remembering my dare.

“Oh…” He blushed harder, looking at me. I turned scarlet and scooted over to Jason. I tried not to think about Percy as I leaned in to kiss Jason’s cheek. I pulled away as quickly as I could and scooted back to my spot, my face burning. We heard the audience cheering from inside the theater. The show must be over. We stood up. “Well, better get ready for people to start coming out,” said Jason, still blushing. Percy and I nodded.

As I went back to my cabin with Hazel, she was singing a song from the show under her breath.

“ _You can like the life you’re livin’, you can live the life you like. You can even marry Harry, but mess around with Ike, and that’s good, isn’t it grand, isn’t it great, isn’t it swell, isn’t it fun, isn’t it? But nothing stays._ ” Nothing stays. That was the truth. In the years that I had been at the Lotus Hotel, so much had changed in the world. It was almost unrecognisable, what with all this internet and coloured television and whatnot. “ _In fifty years or so, it’s gonna change, you know. But oh, it’s Heaven nowadays!_ ”


	5. My Eyes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> THIS CHAPTER IS FAIRLY IMPORTANT. If you don't want to read it, just check the notes at the end of the chapter and I'll tell you what happened.
> 
> Now the gang is doing Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog, and Percy and Nico do a duet that Nico is less than happy about.

This time around, I decided to look up and actually watch the musical I was going to be auditioning for. I managed to find this one online rather easily, and was surprised to find how short it was.

Dr. Horrible’s Sing-a-Long Blog is about a small-time supervillian named Dr. Horrible. He wants to get into this society of supervillians, but in order to do so, he has to do something really bad, and hopefully defeat his enemy, the superhero Captain Hammer. He also has an alternative motive for defeating Captain Hammer. Hammer is dating a girl that Dr. Horrible is in love with, named Penny.

Overall, the musical is really short, really funny, and super, super sad (SPOILER: Dr. Horrible tries to kill Captain Hammer and ends up killing Penny, that girl he likes. Whoops!). Anyways, it looked like a fun musical to audition for, so it didn’t take much for Jason to convince me to audition with him and Percy.

 

The audition was easy enough. The girls got a choice to sing between “Caring Hands” and “Penny’s Song,” which are both sung by Penny. The guys got “Everyone’s a Hero” and “My Freeze-Ray,” which are sung by Captain Hammer and Dr. Horrible respectively. I chose to sing “My Freeze-Ray.” I’m more of a Dr. Horrible than a Captain Hammer. Jason, on the other hand, sang “Everyone’s a Hero” at his audition and let me tell you, he rocked it. He was definitely going to be Captain Hammer.

 

Sure enough, when the cast list came out, Jason was Captain Hammer. But what really surprised me was that Dr. Horrible wasn’t going to be played by Percy, like I thought, but instead by me.

DR. HORRIBLE’S SING-A-LONG BLOG CAST LIST

Dr. Horrible - Nico diAngelo

Penny - Piper McLean

Captain Hammer - Jason Grace

Moist - Leo Valdez

Bad Horse/Captain Hammer Trio:

Percy Jackson

Annabeth Chase

Hazel Levesque

Percy actually got the minor role of being in the Bad Horse and the Captain Hammer trio. The Bad Horse Trio were the people who sang the theme song for Bad Horse, the worst supervillain ever. The Captain Hammer Trio were just three people who were huge fans of Captain Hammer.

But back to the important stuff, it looked like I would be paired with Piper again. I didn’t really care all that much. We didn’t have to kiss or anything, and at least there was no puppet sex this time, either. I had actually been getting along with Piper pretty well. We had almost even become friends.

The thing I was most floored about was that I had somehow managed to be the main character for the second time now. I really wasn’t that talented, or well-liked, so why should they choose me to get the lead role? Whatever. It just meant more work. But I suppose that is what I signed up for when I auditioned for the stupid show.

I’ll have to admit, it was really fun being Jason’s nemesis. I was playing a villain, but I was also the protagonist, which was a bit strange. My favourite part of the show was probably when Percy, Annabeth, and Hazel all jumped up and started singing the Bad Horse theme song. It was hilarious because they were all dressed as cowboys and they all had mustaches and shit. It was great. Dress rehearsals were awesome because you got to be in costume and see everyone else in costume. My costume was pretty cool. It was a long, white labcoat with awesome-looking goggles, kind of like the outfits that Yzma and Kronk wore when they visited the secret lab in the Emperor’s New Groove (Percy made me watch that movie). Either way, I looked super awesome and villain-y, and I couldn’t wait to show off my costume during the show. Plus, this time, we all decided that we were going to have a cast party after the last show on Saturday night. I didn’t originally want to go, but Jason coerced me into going because I was the main character, and the party just “wouldn’t be the same” without me.

The shows were great. I didn’t mess up once! Everyone loved it, and everyone had a great time, even me. My dad even brought me flowers! True, they were dead by the time they got to me, because they had been in the hands of the god of death for so long, but I got one of the Demeter kids to make them lively again so I could put them in a vase in my cabin. As I was coming back out of my cabin, Jason ran over to me.

“Nico! Aren’t you coming to the party?” he asked.

“Yeah,” I replied. “I was just putting the flowers I got in a vase.”

“Flowers?” Jason asked, grinning. “Who were they from?”

“My dad..” I smiled a bit. Jason’s face softened and he smiled back.

“He brought you flowers? That’s awesome…” I nodded.

“Well, let’s get going. The sooner I get to that stupid party, the sooner I can leave.” Jason chuckled as we walked to the party together.

“My favourite line?” said Jason, laughing as he was asked what his favourite line of the show was. “I liked when I told Dr. Horrible that Penny was gonna get the ‘hammer,’ and then I left, and then came back and said, ‘the hammer is my penis.’” Everyone laughed, including me. I was actually having a pretty good time. We didn’t have a very big cast, so the party was pretty small as well. For once, I actually felt like I was part of something. Like, friends, almost.. I was very nearly happy. If I could keep this up maybe a bit longer, I could get there. I could be happy.

“Everyone, may I have your attention, please?” We all turned around to face Percy, who had stood up. “I just wanna say that we had an awesome show, and I totally wish we could do it again, because I love all you guys.” He grinned as he got a cheer from the crowd. “But,” he continued. “There is one person in this room who I love more than anything.” He walked over to Annabeth. A bad feeling churned in my gut. “Annabeth-” Oh no. He got down on one knee and pulled out a box. Oh _no_. “Wise Girl, will you marry me?” _Oh no_.

Cheers erupted as she said yes, but I was barely paying attention. My hand was squeezed so tightly on my drink, I almost thought the glass was going to shatter. I felt a hand on my shoulder.

“Nico?” asked a soft voice. It was Jason. I put my drink down and shoved him off.

“I'm going outside,” I said, but I had no idea whether or not I was audible because so many feelings were going through me at that moment. I stood up and made my way through the crowd and out the back door to the yard. I walked into the shadows and sat down, holding my head in my hands.

“Nico, wait!” Fuck. Jason again. He walked over to where I was and stopped, looking at me. “Nico?..”

“ _Any dolt with half a brain, can see that humankind has gone insane. To the point where I don’t know if I’ll upset the status quo, if I throw poison in the water mane. Listen close to everybody’s heart, and hear that breaking sound. Hopes and dreams are shattering apart, and crashing to the ground.”_ I stood up. _“I cannot believe my eyes, how the world’s filled with filth and lies. But it’s plain to see evil inside of me, is on the rise._ ”

“Nico…” Jason reached out a hand to touch my shoulder, but I avoided him.

“I have to go.” And with that, I left to go back to my cabin, to look at the flowers my father had given me, which were dead again already.

The next day, as I was walking near the stables, I heard some singing coming from inside. As I neared the stables, I recognised the voice. It was Percy’s. I also recognised the song. Oh, how dare him.

“ _Look around. We’re living with the lost and found. Just when you feel you’ve almost drowned, you find yourself on solid ground. And you believe there’s good in everybody’s heart. Keep it safe and sound. With hope you can do your part, to turn a life around. I cannot believe my eyes. Is the world finally growing wise? Because it seems to me, some kind of harmony, is on the rise._ ” I gritted my teeth and began to sing with him.

_“Anyone with half a brain, could spend their whole life howling in pain.”_

_“Take it slow. She looks at me and seems to know.”_

__

_“Because the dark is everywhere and Percy doesn’t seem to care that soon the dark in me is all that will remain.”_

_“The things that I’m afraid to show. And suddenly I feel this glow.”_

__

_“Listen close to everybody’s heart, and hear that breaking sound.”_

_“And I believe there’s good in everybody’s heart. Keep it safe and sound.”_

__

_“Hopes and dreams are shattering apart, and crashing to the ground.”_

_“With hope you can do your part, to turn a life around.”_

__

_“I cannot believe my eyes, how the world’s filled with filth and lies.”_

_“I cannot believe my eyes, how the world’s finally growing wise.”_

__

_“But it’s plain to see evil inside of me, is on the rise.”_

_“And it’s plain to see rapture inside of me, is on the rise.”_

“Nico?” Percy peeked out of the stables and scared the living shit out of me. I jumped a few feet in the air before landing again and taking off running.

“F-Fuck off, Percy!” I yelled as I ran back to my cabin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Basically in this chapter, Nico is having a good time at the cast party when suddenly Percy stands up and proposes to Annabeth (who says yes, obviously). This puts Nico in an EXTREMELY bad mood, and now he's not talking to anyone.


	6. Fixer-Upper

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This time, the play is Frozen. Nico doesn't participate in the acting, but he has a good time with his friends anyway, even after the drama of Dr. Horrible.
> 
> If you don't want to read this chapter, read the notes at the end for a brief summary of what happened. :)

I didn’t audition for the next show. Neither did Percy and Annabeth. I didn’t think I could really handle another musical after the last one. Despite the show itself being good, that afterparty had been an emotional roller coaster. That didn’t stop Jason from auditioning, however. Even though I wasn’t auditioning for the show, I decided to go to Camp Jupiter with everyone who was auditioning, anyways, because Percy and Annabeth were staying at Camp Half-Blood and their engagement was all anyone could talk about, and also Reyna, Jason, and Hazel were all going to be at Camp Jupiter, and they were pretty much my only friends.

Percy had tried to catch me before I left for Camp Jupiter. No doubt he was confused as to why I lashed out at him at the stables after the last show. I had been avoiding him ever since. Now it was his last chance to talk to me for a while, so he attempted to do so.

“Nico,” he said as he entered my cabin without my permission as I was packing. I groaned.

“What?” I asked, not looking at him. My hand was clenched on a shirt that I was packing.

“Nico, you’ve been avoiding me ever since the last show. Ever since you yelled at me at the stables. I just wanna know why. What did I do wrong?” I sighed.

“N-Nothing, Percy. Just… Go away.”

“Nico-”

“Leave.” For a minute there was silence before I heard Percy’s footsteps retreating out of the cabin. I put the shirt I had been holding down and leaned back against my bed with another sigh. Why couldn’t I just get over him?

The bus ride to Camp Jupiter was uneventful, except for when I fell asleep on Jason and then he fell asleep on me and one of the girls from the Aphrodite cabin took a picture. That was annoying. But wow, what a long-ass trip. I would have shadow-traveled, but I had been placed under strict orders not to by Will Solace, one of the Apollo kids. Even though it had been over a year since we defeated Gaea, I was still weakened every time I shadow-traveled. I hoped I would get over that soon. I wanted to be able to teleport again. It was really cool.

 

About a week later, Jason and I were in the bathhouse, talking.

“I’m glad these things aren’t like the ancient Roman ones. You know, where you had to get naked in front of everyone to take a bath,” Jason said, chuckling. I nodded. “Did you know,” he continued. “That in ancient Roman bathhouses, everyone in the bath would applaud when a man who was especially ‘well-endowed’ entered the vicinity?” Even I had to chuckle at that.

“Really?”

“Yeah.” He nodded, grinning. “Oh, did you see the cast list for the musical?” he asked. I shook my head. “Here, I have a copy in my bag.” He got out of the bath and went over to his bag before taking out a sheet of paper and bringing it over to me to look at.

FROZEN CAST LIST

Anna - Piper McLean

Elsa - Reyna Ramirez-Arellano

Hans - Jason Grace

Kristoff - Frank Zhang

Olaf - Leo Valdez

“So what’s Frozen about, anyways?” I asked, having never seen the movie.

“Oh, it’s about these two sisters, Elsa and Anna. Elsa has magical ice powers, but Anna doesn’t know that. During Elsa’s coronation ball as queen, she accidentally uses her powers and runs away, but she doesn’t know that she’s created an eternal winter, so Anna has to go after her.” I nodded.

“So who are Hans, Kristoff, and Olaf?” I asked.

“Hans is this guy who meets Anna at the ball. They fall in love and want to get married, but Elsa says no and the sisters get into an argument. That’s what sets her powers off.” I hummed, showing Jason that I was paying attention. “And Kristoff is another love interest of Anna’s,” he said. “He helps her find Elsa after she’s ran away. And Olaf is a talking snowman.” I chuckled and looked at him.

“A talking snowman?” I asked. Jason nodded.

“Yeah, he’s pretty awesome.” He grinned.

“Huh. I’ll have to watch the movie at some point.”

“Seeing the show will probably be good enough, but if you want to come to the cast party afterwards, we’re going to be watching the movie.”

“But I’m not in the cast,” I replied, raising an eyebrow.

“That doesn’t matter. You’re our friend. Besides, we’ve got a pretty small cast. We’d all probably be able to squeeze on one couch to watch the movie.”

“You all might, but I won’t.”

“You can sit on my lap.” He winked and laughed. I turned scarlet.

“N-Not funny.”

“It’s kind of funny?”

“Okay maybe it’s kind of funny…” I cracked a smile. Jason smiled as well and soon we were both laughing. I really liked hanging out with Jason. He was getting to be a very good friend to me.

Jason was right about most of the people at the party being able to fit onto one large couch. I had volunteered to go get popcorn while everyone else set up the movie, so by the time I got back from the kitchen, everyone had already taken their seats and there was no room left for me. I looked around, biting my lip nervously.

“Nico.” I looked over at Jason, who had spoken. “You can always sit on my lap.” He grinned. I sighed. Was I really going to do this? I set the popcorn bowl down on the coffee table and slowly walked over to Jason, looking around to see if there was anywhere else I could possibly sit. Jason was the closest person to me here besides Hazel, and I was too big to sit on Hazel’s lap, so Jason was the only other person I would ever be remotely comfortable doing that with. I hesitantly sat down in his lap, blushing madly. We earned some snickers from the rest of the people there before they started the movie. I was sitting really awkwardly, trying to put as little of my weight onto Jason as possible. Suddenly, I heard a voice in my ear. “You can relax, Nico. It’s okay, I got you.” It was Jason. Hearing his voice in my ear like that made me shiver. I slowly began to relax into him.

By the time we were halfway through the movie, I was resting comfortably in Jason’s arms. He was so warm.. It was making me extremely sleepy. Without giving it much thought I nuzzled my face into his shoulder a bit, closing my eyes. I wanted to stay like this forever… Before I knew it, I had fallen asleep.

*~-----~*

The next thing I knew, I was in the middle of a snowy clearing. I looked around only to notice that Jason was there with me. More importantly, there were also a bunch of little monster gremlin things. Were those… the trolls from the show? Suddenly, one of them took my hand and brought me up to Jason.

“So tell me dear,” it (she?) said to Jason. “Why are you holding back from such a man?” What? I was even more confused when she began to sing. “ _Is it the way that he runs scared-_ ”

“ _Or that he’s socially impaired,_ ” sang another.

“ _Or the way that he escapes into the woods?_ ” Was this about me?

“ _Are you rejected by his snarkness, or that he’s surrounded by darkness-_ ”

“ _Or the way he covers up that he’s the honest goods?_ ” This was definitely about me. What the fuck.

“ _He’s just a bit of a fixer-upper, he’s got a couple of bugs._ ”

“No I don’t!” I said, indignantly.

“ _His isolation is confirmation of his desperation for healing hugs! So he’s a bit of a fixer-upper, but we know what to do. The way to fix this fixer-upper is to fix him up for you!_ ” At this, I decided to intervene.

“Enough!” I shouted at the trolls. “He has a girlfriend!” I pointed to Jason, glaring at the creatures. They stopped singing for a bit before getting into a huddle.

“ _So he’s a bit of a fixer upper. That’s a minor thing._ ” Ugh.

“ _His quote ‘girlfriend’’s just a little descend, ‘cause we know for whom he really sings!_ ” At this, they came out of their huddle and began to sing outwardly to us again.

“ _So he’s a bit of a fixer-upper, his brain’s a bit betwixt. Get the girlfriend out of the way, and the whole thing will be fixed!_ ” Then another one went up to Jason and sang to him.

“ _We’re not saying you can change him, ‘cause people don’t really change. We’re only saying that love’s a force that’s powerful and strange. People make bad choices if they’re mad or scared or stressed. But throw a little love their way and you’ll bring out their best!_ ”

“ _True love brings out the best!_ ” they all sang. “ _Everyone’s a bit of a fixer-upper, that’s what it’s all about!_ ”

“ _Father!_ ”

“ _Sister!_ ”

“ _Brother!_ ”

“ _We need each other to raise us up and round us out! Everyone’s a bit of a fixer-upper, but when push comes to shove-_ ” And wait, was that Olaf? The talking snowman?

“ _The only fixer-upper fixer that can fix a fixer-upper is-_ ”

“ _True! True! True, true, true! Love! Love, love, love, love, love! Love!_ ” While this was going on, they had gathered me and Jason and put little leaf crowns and capes on us. I was too confused to register what was going on until suddenly one of them spoke.

“Do you, Jason, take Nico, to be your troll-fully wedded-”

“Wait, what?” Jason asked, equally as confused as I.

“You’re getting married.”

“ _Love!_ ”

*~-----~*

I opened my eyes. What the Hell was that dream? Where even was I? I looked up to see that Jason had just woken up as well. Oh right, I must have still been in his lap. Wait, was Jason blushing? He looked at me, blinking.

“Nico.. I just had the weirdest dream. And you were there! You know that fixer-upper song from the show?” I groaned. “What?” he asked.

“You had that dream, too…” I bit my lip and looked away. Jason sighed.

“It’s so weird how demigods have shared dreams like that…” He chuckled a bit. I relaxed a little before realising I was still in Jason’s lap. I got off of him, blushing.

“W-We should go get some sleep. It’s late.” And with that, I left, trying not to think about Jason or the dream.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After falling asleep on each other while watching a movie, someone (Aphrodite) made Nico and Jason have a shared dream, in which a bunch of trolls attempted to set them up with each other. This obviously makes both of them very flustered.


	7. Hopelessly Devoted to You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Okay so this is my favourite musical and anyone who judges me for it can stick a rusty knife up their ass.  
> They're doing Grease!! Also more drama happens because of some certain casting and the fact that Percy Jackson is an oblivious idiot.
> 
> If you don't read the chapter, read the summary at the end for a brief overview of important things that happened.

By the time the auditions for the next musical came around, I was ready to take part again. Apparently, so were Percy and Annabeth, as I saw them at auditions and proceeded to actively avoid the both of them.

The musical that we were doing now was one that I hadn’t seen before. It was set in the 1950s and it was about this really macho cool guy who fell in love with this really cute, pure girl and then the guy had to try and win back her love while still seeming cool to his friends. Personally, I think the guy should have just stopped caring about what his friends thought if he loved this girl so much. But then again, he was only in high school. Oh yeah, and the show was called Grease.

For my audition, I sang a song called Greased Lightnin’. The song was about a car that the main guy, Danny, and his crew, the “T-Birds” were trying to fix up. “Greased Lightnin’” was apparently the name of the car.

Jason sang an excerpt from the song “You’re the One That I Want,” which happens at the end when the main girl, Sandy, decides to become a bad girl and then surprises Danny with it.

Someone else showed up at auditions that we didn’t expect. The Hunters of Artemis were in town, so Thalia decided to audition for the show as well. She had been in Annie a while back, but she hadn’t been in a show since. It would be cool if she got cast. I liked Thalia.

I take that back.

I had watched Grease before my audition, just so I knew what I was getting myself into (I wasn’t going to make the Avenue Q mistake again), so I knew how much kissing a certain couple did in the show. So when I looked at the cast list, I was met with a rather irritating sight.

GREASE CAST LIST

Danny Zuko - Jason Grace

Sandy Olsson - Hazel Levesque

Kenickie - Percy Jackson

Doody - Nico di Angelo

Sonny - Leo Valdez

Roger - Frank Zhang

Betty Rizzo - Thalia Grace

Frenchy - Piper McLean

Marty - Reyna Ramirez-Arellano

Jan - Annabeth Chase

I mean, it was great that Thalia got cast and all, but did she really have to be the character that made out with Percy’s character throughout the show? Really? Was that necessary? And I thought Percy was going to end up being Danny! I’ll give the directors that Thalia was going to be a terrific Rizzo, but I assumed that Percy was going to be Danny and Jason was going to be Kenickie- wait. That wouldn’t have worked. Thalia is Jason’s sister. Dammit. But wait, wasn’t Thalia’s vow of maidenhood going to get in the way? Did the vow apply to kissing too, or just sex? I sighed, trying to think about something different. Which one was Doody again? Was he the small one? I was pretty sure he was the small one. Awesome. Fuck, I didn’t want to go to rehearsals…

 

I went to rehearsals. I tried to stay in bed on the first day, but Jason came into my cabin and dragged me to the rehearsal. When we got there, he sat me down and I crossed my arms.

“Nico, what is the matter?” Jason asked, irritated. “You’ve been acting like this since the cast list went up. Did you want a bigger part or something?” I gave him an extremely annoyed look.

“Really?” I sighed. “Well it’s just that Percy got a role in which he will be making out with Thalia a whole lot and I don’t know how I feel about that.”

“I know how you feel about it,” Jason said, raising an eyebrow.

“Really.”

“Yeah. You’re jealous.”

“That’s ridiculous.” I huffed.

“It’s true.”

“Whatever.” Jason sighed and sat down next to me.

“Want a hug?”

“No.” I scooted away from him. Thankfully, rehearsal started before Jason could say or do anything else.

Rehearsals went by smoothly, for the most part. Thalia got permission from Artemis to kiss Percy, because it was only a play and she didn’t really like him like that, anyways.

It didn’t take long for me to realise that Danny wasn’t that “cool, macho” guy that I thought he was. If anything, he was a huge dork, especially when he was being played by Jason. Also, I had almost forgotten how good Jason was at singing. I hadn’t been up close while he was singing since Dr. Horrible. He really was talented.

With such a talented cast, it really was no surprise that the show went really well. Afterwards, Percy caught me as I was walking back to my cabin.

“Nico, wait!” I kept walking, but he caught up with me. “Nico.” He put his hands on my shoulders to stop me from walking. I glared at him.

“What do you want?”

“Well, you’ve been avoiding me, and I think… I think I know why.” My heart nearly stopped. He couldn’t know. How could he possibly know? Oh gods, he was going to hate me! Percy sighed. “I… I just want to say I’m sorry… You like Annabeth, right? It was stupid of me to propose to her in front of everyone like that, not taking into account anyone else’s feelings. If you’re jealous of me because of it, then… I’m sorry. I really am, Nico. You’re my friend, and I just don’t want you avoiding me, cus I like you and I like spending time with you.”

I gaped at him.

“Are you… You’re serious. You’re really serious.” Was he kidding? Was this a fucking joke?

“Of course I’m serious..” He smiled a bit. “Please be my friend again, Nico…” I stepped away from him.

“You have got to be fucking kidding me!” I shook my head before turning tail and leaving, running back to my cabin. How could he think I liked Annabeth? That blind fucking idiot! I ran past my cabin, deciding instead to head down to the docks. I sat down and sighed, looking out at the ocean. Why did I have to have so many stupid feelings for Percy? “ _Guess mine is not the first heart broken, my eyes are not the first to cry. I’m not the first to know there’s just no getting over you,_ ” I sang, reciting one of the songs from the show. “ _You know I’m just a fool who’s willing to sit around and wait for you. But baby, can’t you see, there’s nothing else for me to do. I’m hopelessly devoted to you._ ” I looked up at the sky. “ _But now there’s nowhere to hide, since you pushed my love aside. I’m out of my head, hopelessly devoted to you, hopelessly devoted to you. Hopelessly devoted to you…_ ” It wasn’t the whole song, but it was enough to make me feel slightly better. I laid down where I was and sighed, looking at the stars. I narrowed my eyes as I looked. Wait a minute, was that-

There was a shooting star. Should I wish on it?

“I wish…” I thought aloud. “I wish to find someone… Someone to make me feel not alone anymore…” As the star disappeared, I felt somehow different. Not a bad different, but different, nonetheless.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, so Percy has to make out with Thalia in the show, which makes Nico jealous. Also, Nico has been avoiding both Percy and Annabeth ever since they got engaged two shows ago. Eventually, Percy corners Nico and tries to apologise because he thinks that Nico has a crush on Annabeth, and he feels bad for proposing to her in front of everyone. This just makes Nico more upset, because Percy's a fucking idiot.


	8. It Takes Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> THIS CHAPTER IS VITALLY IMPORTANT TO THE PLOT YO
> 
> ALSO I've always had a personal headcanon that Percy is black, so that's why he's cast as a black character (why does no one else have this headcanon it's so good omg).
> 
> They're doing Hairspray! The part that Nico gets in the cast is just SLIGHTLY problematic. After all, he's never kissed anyone before, so how is he gonna kiss someone onstage in front of people?
> 
> (for people who haven't seen Hairspray- first of all, you should. Secondly, Nico gives like, a full summary of the thing. Since this chapter is so important, you really should read it. However, if you REALLY don't want to, I'll still put a little summary at the end of what happened.)
> 
> another thing- SUSAN, remember the thing you thought I did in the last chapter? Well I DID IT IN THIS CHAPTER thanks for giving me the idea <3

I had seen only a quarter of the Hairspray movie when I knew it was going to be an awesome show.

Hairspray is a musical set in the 1960s in Baltimore. It stars an overweight girl named Tracy Turnblad who loves dancing. One day, her favourite local dance show revealed that one of their members was going to be leaving the show, opening up a slot for a new member, and that they would be hosting auditions. So Tracy auditions auditions and gets made fun of by this mean girl named Amber and her mom, who was one of the people running the show. Then at some point she gets a detention in class for something stupid, and goes to the detention room where she meets a bunch of African-American students who are all singing and dancing. One of them is named Seaweed, and he makes friends with Tracy. They meet again at an open-dance event at the aforementioned dance show during “Negro Day,” where they allow African-American kids to come and dance on the show. During this, a guy named Link who’s on the show, and who’s also Tracy’s crush, sings a song, and Tracy dances to it, and he notices. So does the showrunner, Corny Collins. Corny likes Tracy so much that he allows her to be on the show! Then Tracy gets famous and all that jazz. But then she decides she wants to take part in a march with Seaweed and his family and friends in support of integration. During the march, she gets arrested by the police, but it’s right before the Miss Hairspray Dance Contest! So Link, who is in love with Tracy by this point, breaks her out of prison and he, Tracy, Seaweed, and Tracy’s best friend (and Seaweed’s love interest) Penny all go to the dance contest. The police are after Tracy and stuff but she outwits them and ends up knocking everybody’s socks off with an awesome musical number in which she, Penny, Seaweed’s sister Inez, Tracy’s mom, and Seaweed’s mom all dance (and are thereby entered in the contest). When the votes come in for Miss Hairspray, it turns out that the winner is Inez, Seaweed’s sister, meaning that the Corny Collins Show is now integrated! Then the mean mom from before gets fired and everyone is happy and gods, I love this show. This just might be my favourite musical I’ve ever seen. It’s seriously awesome and anyone who hasn’t seen it should see it.

So anyways, even though I didn’t see a character I could really be, I was still excited to auditon for the show. Maybe I’d get to be Corny Collins or something? I didn’t know, but anyways, I sang a song called “It Takes Two” for my audition, which is a song that Link sings. I thought I did alright.

As it turned out, I did even more “alright” than I expected.

HAIRSPRAY CAST LIST

Link Larkin - Nico di Angelo

Edna Turnblad - Jason Grace

Tracy Turnblad - Clarisse La Rue

Penny Pingleton - Piper McLean

Velma von Tussle - Annabeth Chase

Motormouth Maybelle - Reyna Ramirez-Arellano

Amber von Tussle - Thalia Grace

Wilbur Turnblad - Frank Zhang

Corny Collins - Leo Valdez

Seaweed J. Stupps - Percy Jackson

Inez Stupps - Hazel Levesque

I was downright shocked when I saw my name at the top of that list. I was nowhere near good enough to be Link! I thought Jason was going to be Link or something? Speaking of Jason, he was going to be playing Edna, Tracy’s mom, a role which has historically been cast for a man. It was going to be hilarious to see him in a dress. It was also cool that Clarisse was in the show. She hadn’t been in too many, but I knew that she was a pretty good actress. What wasn’t so cool was that she was supposed to be my love interest, but whatever. I didn’t think they would have us do anything like kissing in the show.

 

I was wrong. I was dead wrong and I was scared. We were a couple of rehearsals into the show and were about to leave to go get dinner when Mr. D reminded us that “oh yes, there will be a bit of kissing practice for Nico and Clarisse next rehearsal. Tata now!” I froze in my tracks when I heard this. I was going to have to kiss Clarisse? Like actually kiss her? My heartbeat sped up. I had never kissed anyone before in my entire life! I was going to be awful at it. And besides, I REALLY didn’t want my first kiss to be onstage in front of a bunch of people. Oh gods, what was I going to do…

As I was walking back to my cabin after dinner, Jason caught up with me as I reached the door.

“Hey, Nico, can I talk to you?” he asked. I shrugged and opened the door, gesturing for him to come inside. He did so, and I shut the door behind him before going to sit on my bed. He sat next to me, and I scooted away a bit. “Nico, you seemed really shaken after Mr. D announced that you’d have to kiss Clarisse next rehearsal. Have you… You’ve never kissed anyone, have you?” I blushed and shook my head.

“N-No, I haven’t…”

“Are you gonna be okay?” Jason asked. Why did he have to be so goddamn considerate? I sighed.

“I dunno… I mean since I’ve never kissed anyone I’m probably gonna be terrible at it, and I really, really don’t want my first kiss to be onstage in front of people.” I huffed.

“Come on,” Jason said. “All you need is some practice!”

“Practice kissing?” I asked, raising an eyebrow. “Jason, there is no one who would be willing to ‘practice kissing’ with me in the next few days before our- wait.” My face heated up. Did he mean…? Jason’s face turned red as well and he looked away.

“W-Well, I mean, why not, right?” he mumbled, looking at his lap.

“Why not?!” I gaped at him. “I… You… Isn’t it weird, though? Kissing me, even though you know I like guys?” Jason merely shrugged at this.

“That’s why I volunteered, instead of trying to help you get a girl to do it.”

“Speaking of girls, Jason you have a girlfriend!”

“I-I’m just helping you. She’ll understand. It’s just a kiss, it doesn’t mean anything..” I sat in silence for a bit, pondering this.

“You… Do you really want to kiss me?...” I asked, quietly. Jason blushed harder.

“W-Well, if it would make you feel better about the show…” He bit his lip. I looked away.

“.... Fine,” I muttered, after a minute of silence.

“What?”

“I said fine! Just… Get it over with.” Even though I couldn’t see a mirror from where I was sitting, I was sure that my face was redder than a ripe tomato. Jason scooted closer to me.

“Nico, if I’m going to kiss you, uh, you’re gonna need to look at me..” He chuckled. I forced myself to look up at him. Goddamn, his eyes were pretty.. They were sky blue, the colour of ice melting in the sun, or of those blue jellybeans that Percy likes so much. “A-Alright,” Jason said, clearing his throat. “I-I’m just gonna…” He scooted even closer and cupped the side of my face with his hand. My heartrate was so fast that I was afraid my heart was going to straight up jump out of my chest and run a marathon around New Rome. I studied Jason’s face as me moved closer. His firm jawline, his cute freckles… Not that they were that cute. They were just… All freckles are cute, y’know? Whatever. Oh gods he was getting closer. I leaned in a little as well, half-closing my eyes. I closed my eyes all the way as our lips met, and I wasn’t completely sure but I thought I might have heard a crack of thunder outside.

My body felt as light as air as Jason kissed me, and I found myself kissing back with much more confidence than I had been before. Jason wrapped an arm around me and I tangled my fingers in his hair. His lips were so soft, so gentle… Why did this feel so right? As Jason pulled away a bit to get some air, I realised: I just had my first kiss. With Jason Grace. I was shaking a bit as I looked at him.

“Was that… okay?” he asked, looking back at me. I swallowed a bit and nodded.

“Y-yeah… Yeah.” I looked away. “Thanks…”

“‘Course…” I didn’t acknowledge the fact that he still had his arms around my waist or that I still had my arms around his neck. I had never been held like this before. It felt nice...

Jason cleared his throat a bit and withdrew his arms from around me. I took my arms away from him as well and scooted away on the bed.

“S-So,” Jason said. As I looked up at him, I realised that his face was almost as red as mine probably was. “That’ll probably make it easier for you to kiss Clarisse, y-yeah?” I nodded. An extremely awkward silence ensued. Eventually, Jason stood up. “I’m just gonna… I’ll see you tomorrow.” He smiled a bit before leaving the cabin. I flopped back on my bed with a sigh.

“Holy shit…”

That kiss with Jason did make it easier and less awkward for me to kiss Clarisse. I got it over with quickly and it was fine, and rehearsal went on. After rehearsal, Jason came up to me again. We hadn’t talked since our shared kiss.

“Hey, Nico, so uh..” I turned to look at him. “I told Piper about our… What we did…” I gaped at him.

“You did what?! Did you tell her about… about me?”

“No, no! I didn’t tell her anything like that. I just told her that we, well y’know… kissed.”

“So now she knows that I’m…! Yeah…” I bit my lip, blushing.

“No! Well, maybe, but that doesn’t have anything to do with me. If she knows it’s because of some weird Aphrodite power thing. All I said was that we kissed. And she thinks I’m straight, I’m pretty sure, even though I kissed you, so I don’t see why it should be any different for you.” I sighed.

“Fine…”

“But yeah, anyways, she’s fine with it. I explained the situation and how I was just helping out a friend, and she understands.” Jason smiled. I looked up at him.

“She does?” I asked. He nodded. I smiled. “That’s good… Tell her I said ‘thanks’ for letting me borrow her boyfriend.” I chuckled. Jason grinned.

“Y-Yeah, I will.”

This time, for the cast party, we decided to have a dance. We thought it was fitting for a show about dancing to have a dance as its party. We would have songs from the 50s and 60s, songs from the show, songs from other, past shows, and modern music. Overall, I thought it was going to be a pretty good dance. The only thing that would have made it more fun would be if Hazel and I had been allowed to add in 30s and 40s music. Then we could have taught everyone how to dance. I danced with Hazel a little bit, but she mostly danced with Frank, and I stayed off to the sides. I was in the corner, sipping at some punch, when a familiar song came on.

‘ _They say it's a man's world. Well, that cannot be denied. But what good's a man's world without a woman by his side. And so i will wait until that moment you decide, that i'm your man and you're my girl. That i'm the sea and you're the pearl. It takes two, baby, it takes two._ ’

It was one of the songs that I sang as Link. It was so painfully straight, but I wasn’t paying attention to the lyrics. Instead, I had somehow made eye contact with none other than Jason.

Jason was slow-dancing with Piper in the middle of the dance floor. They had their arms around each other and Jason was resting his head on Piper’s shoulder, so she couldn’t see where he was looking. Even from across the room, I could tell how beautiful Jason’s eyes were.

‘ _A king ain't a king without the pow'r behind the throne. A prince is a pauper. Babe, without a chick to call his own. So please, darling, choose me, I don't wanna rule alone. Tell me, I'm your king and you're my queen. That no one else can come between. It takes two, baby, it takes two._ ’

I knew I was not supposed to be looking at Jason like this, that it was wrong and that he had a girlfriend, but I just couldn’t help it when he was gazing at me like that. His gaze was captivating. I felt entrapped, as if caught in a sea net cast by a handsome fisherman with beautiful blue eyes.

‘ _Lancelot had guinevere. Mrs. Claus has old st. Nick. Romeo had Juliet, and liz, well, she has her dick. They say it takes two to tango, well, that tango's child's play. So take me to the dance floor, and we'll twist the night away. Just like frankie avalon, had his favorite mouseketeer, I dream of a lover, babe, to say the things I long to hear. So come closer baby, oh and whisper in my ear. Tell me you're my girl, and i'm your boy. That you're my pride, and i'm your joy. That i'm the sand, and you're the tide, and I'll be the groom if you'll be my bride. It takes two, baby, it takes two. It takes two, baby, it takes two…_ ”

I blinked when the song ended and looked away, my heart pounding. When I looked back over, Jason was smiling and laughing with Piper. A bit of jealousy twinged in my chest. Shit… That wasn’t a good sign… I SO did not need another stupid, impossible crush on a demigod superstar. Speaking of my other demigod superstar crush, I realised that I hadn’t looked for or even thought about Percy throughout that entire slow-dance song. He had probably been dancing with Annabeth the whole time. If I hadn’t been looking at Jason the whole time, I almost certainly would have been fuming over Percy and Annabeth. But I hadn’t been. I had been looking- no, _gazing_ at Jason. The whole goddamn time. And what made it possibly worse was that he had been gazing back! What the fuck was that about?! I glanced at Jason and Piper once more before excusing myself to go back home and sleep. I really needed some rest. Oh, what a night...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nico got cast as the main male lead in the show, which meant that he had to kiss the main female lead. However, Nico's never kissed anyone before. He explains how nervous he is to Jason, who said that it might be a good idea to get some kissing experience in before the next rehearsal. This somehow ends up with Jason taking Nico's first kiss.  
> After that, things are pretty awkward between them. They don't really talk about the kiss they shared, like, at all.  
> Then, the cast party this time is a dance, because it fit with the theme of the show. During a slow-dance, Jason is dancing with Piper, however he is gazing at Nico, who is standing off to the side, the whole time. Obviously they've got some newfound romantic tension going on.


	9. Walk Like A Man

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nico is excited to be cast as the main role in Jersey Boys! He finds a new, happier singing style in channelling the voice of singer Frankie Valli. However, problems arise in the form of Nico's hormones, which he must valiantly duel in order to not make things awkward between him and his friends, especially Jason and Percy. Also, Jason has been acting a little differently towards Nico for some reason.
> 
> I haven't seen Jersey Boys in quite a while, so forgive me if some of the plot/characters are a little off.  
> This chapter doesn't have much important stuff in it, so I'll add in the only important bit at the end. Enjoy!
> 
> (also #tw: sex mention)

How I keep managing to land main character roles is beyond me. But then again, I suppose for this particular show it wasn’t all that much of a mystery. After all, unless Frank were to turn into a chipmunk, I was the only guy who auditioned who could sing as high as Frankie Valli.

Jersey Boys is a musical based off of the popular 50s/60s/70s vocal group called “The Four Seasons,” or “Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons.” The guys in the band were Frankie Valli, the lead, Tommy DeVito, the problem, Nick DeVito, the bass, and Bob Gaudio, the brains behind the whole operation.  The musical used the songs they performed, such as “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” “Sherry,” “Walk Like a Man,” and “Oh What a Night.” So far, I liked this theme we had going on of 50s-60s musicals. First Grease, then Hairspray, and now this. I was really getting to love the whole aesthetic.

When I first started practicing “Sherry” for auditions, I somehow managed to open up a whole new part of my voice that I hadn’t realised was there before. You have to be on a sort of different plane to be able to sing like Frankie Valli. You gotta use the top of your mouth, the top of your throat. You have to always be thinking up. Now, as a person who usually thinks down, this was pretty enlightening. I didn’t even know I was capable of finding the right mindset and the right voice, but I managed it somehow. Also another thing about singing like Frankie Valli: you’ve got to place your vibrato very, very specifically so you still sound cool and good, but you don’t end up sounding like a Disney princess. It’s got to be much scarcer than in most musical theatre songs, but still more frequent than in country music. It’s difficult, but it’s so worth it once you figure it out.

When the cast list came up, I was immensely proud of myself when I saw my name at the top, for I knew that I had totally figured out all this Frankie Valli stuff.

JERSEY BOYS CAST LIST

Frankie Valli - Nico di Angelo

Tommy DeVito - Leo Valdez

Nick DeVito - Percy Jackson

Bob Gaudio - Jason Grace

Angelo ‘Gyp’ DeCarlo - Frank Zhang

Bob Crewe - Will Solace

Francine Valli - Hazel Levesque

Mary Rinaldi - Reyna Ramirez-Arellano

So besides me, it looked like Leo was “the problem” (no surprises there), Percy was “the bass” (I didn’t know he could sing that low? Go figure), and Jason was “the brains” (totally inaccurate. Jason’s about as intellectual as that brick that was thrown at his face that one time).

As for the other characters, I’m just gonna give a quick analysis.

Angelo ‘Gyp’ DeCarlo, I’m pretty sure is a mobster. He’s friends with the DeVito brothers, and in turn is friends with Frankie and Bob Gaudio. He’s pretty much their mentor. Bob Crewe is a person from the record company (I think?) and he works with the Four Seasons. Francine Valli is Frankie Valli’s daughter, and Mary Rinaldi is Frankie Valli’s wife (and eventually ex-wife). It seemed that Reyna would be playing my love interest. That was going to be super awkward. She’s like a sister to me.

In all my life, I had never thought I would kiss so many girls.

Okay, well I’ve kissed two now. Two girls and one boy. The first being Jason, the one boy, and then Clarisse, and now Reyna. Also, I was right. It was super, super awkward. Thankfully, we don’t do much kissing. But even so, I don’t want to kiss Reyna ever again; it’s too weird. That being said, she’s awesome at being Mary Rinaldi. She plays the part so well, it’s amazing. She’s a super talented actress.

This show also had some emotional drama in it, though. Well, for me, at least. Hazel’s character, my character’s daughter, dies in the show, and frankly, I wasn’t completely sure how I was going to handle that. It just brought back bad memories for me, and I’m sure it did for Hazel too, seeing as she’s already died once before. She didn’t have a death scene, there was only a phone call to my character to report her death. To be honest, I wasn’t sure which would have been worse. It might have been better for her to have a dramatic death scene, than for there just to be a scene with me in which I get a phone call bearing the bad news. Just having the phone call made it more realistic, more like it could actually happen. An actual death scene may have made it more theatrical; less believable.

The first rehearsal that we were offbook and onstage, the phone call scene was initiated perfectly. I could feel tears threatening to well up in my eyes as I was trying to act. I clenched and unclenched my fist, trying to keep it in. I couldn’t do this now, but it was too real. It seemed too real, like Bianca all over again. Never actually seeing it, just getting the bad news from someone else.

After the scene, I went backstage and hugged Hazel. She didn’t say anything, she didn’t have to. She simply put her arms around me and hugged me back. She knew why I was as upset as I was.

That evening, I was thinking about what had happened earlier with Hazel, when I heard a strange noise.

“Psst!”

What the fuck was that. I looked around for the source of the noise.

“Pssssst!”

My attention was directed towards a cluster of bushes. I got up from where I had been sitting and walked over, only to find Leo camped out under the brush. I kicked him. He yelped and fell out of the bushes.

“What are you doing here, making noises at me?” I asked, glaring at him.

“Dude, calm down! I just came to get you ‘cus Percy found this awesome underwater cave with a pretty big air pocket, and he says it’s got a great echo for singing!” Leo grinned at me. I raised an eyebrow.

“So…?”

“So we’re all gonna go and sing some songs down there! You, me, Percy, and Jason! Come on!” He grabbed my hand and started going towards the beach. I pulled my hand away from him, blushing, but still followed him. It’d be good to get a bit more practice in.

Percy and Jason were waiting for us at the beach. Percy grinned.

“Alright, so if we can all hold hands while we go into the water, I’ll create an air bubble around us and take us to the cave,” he said, looking around at the group.

“Sweet,” said Leo, taking one of Percy’s hands and one of Jason’s hands. Shit. That meant that I also had to hold hands with Percy and Jason. Fuuuccckkkk.

Percy eagerly took one of my hands, but Jason was more awkward about it. Was it because of our kiss last show? Leo raised an eyebrow.

“Look, it’s like an intense, silent ‘no homo,’” he commented. Percy chuckled. I frowned at this and grabbed Jason’s hand, blushing madly.

“O-Okay, let’s go already,” I grumbled. Percy smiled and began leading us into the water.

 

It was a strange feeling, being underwater without being wet. Percy managed to make it so that the four of us were completely dry inside the air bubble. I had always imagined going underwater with Percy. In my fantasies, he would hold me close as we glided under the surface, surrounded by colourful fish and cool-looking plants. He would take both of my hands and lead me to his underwater palace, and tell me about how he would like nothing better than to run away there with me forever....

But that was stupid, and it was never going to happen in a million years. While Percy was holding my hand, it was nothing like what I had pictured. No, this was more like that fantasy I had had a couple of nights ago that involved both Percy AND Jason, and- you know, what I’m not going to get into that. That’s a really bad idea. And I was only reminded of it because both Percy and Jason were holding my hands, and shit, thinking about that fantasy better not cause any problems down below or I was going to drown in embarrassment.

I suppose Jason must have noticed how red my face was as Percy led us towards the cave, because he looked at me, worried.

“Nico, you okay?” I jumped a bit.

“I-I’m fine! Completely normal!” I grinned an excruciatingly fake grin at Jason, who raised an eyebrow.

“Alright… You know, if you’re sick or something, we can do this tomorrow.”

“N-no, I’m alright, really..” Now Percy and Leo were looking at me, too.

“You sure?” asked Percy. “Your face is pretty red…”

“I-I’m really fine…” I looked at Jason again, whose eyes were now trained on mine and Percy’s joined hands. Maybe he was just analysing why my face was red? But now Jason had a strange look on his face, too. A sour, bitter look. I wondered what that could have been about?

When we got to the cave, I marveled at how cool it was. I had never been to an underwater cave before.

“Wow,” said Jason. A loud echo bounced off the walls with Jason’s word. He chuckled. “It’s really echoey in here,” he said, causing the walls to echo again.

I wondered what it would be like to have sex in here, with all the moans and gasps and other noises bouncing off of the walls- STOP THINKING ABOUT THAT STUFF, NICO. I really could not afford to be thinking that stuff when I was alone with three cute boys. That was extremely dangerous and could lead to many awkward situations. Even still, I wondered what would happen if Percy and I were to come here alone…

“Nico? Yo, Nico. Hey, I think this boy’s in lalaland or some shit. Nico!”

I snapped out of my daydreaming trance and looked at Leo, who had spoken.

“I wasn’t thinking about that!” I exclaimed, still a little out of it. Leo blinked.

“What? Thinking about… what?” he asked. I glanced at Percy.

“Nothing, nothing!” said Jason, jumping in to save me. “Let’s just get to practicing!”

“A-Alright,” said Leo, still confused. “What song should we do?”

“Well what song is hardest for us?” asked Percy. “We should probably do that one.”

“W-Well,” I began. The rest of the group looked at me. “I’ve been having some trouble with all of the octave changes in ‘Walk Like a Man.’” I shrugged. Jason nodded.

“Yeah, that one is kinda hard. Let’s start with that one.”

“Alright, let’s do it!” Leo grinned. Percy nodded as well.

I cleared my throat before beginning to sing.

“ _Oh how you tried, to cut me down to size, by telling dirty lies to my friends. But my own father, said give her up, don't bother. The world isn't coming to an end. He said walk like a man, talk like a man. Walk like a man my son. No woman's worth, crawling on the earth. So walk like a man my son._ ” As I sang, I found myself getting into touch with the music better than I ever had before. Perhaps it was the sound quality of the cave? Either way, I was able to pick out the places in which I had the most trouble and then figure out what I could do to make it sound better. I needed to sound lighter there, coarser there, have more vibrato there, have less air there. It was perfect. And by the time we had finished rehearsing, the song had never sounded better.

The show was stellar. I managed to make it through the whole thing without messing up more than once! Everyone was in high spirits by the time we got to the karaoke cast party. I wasn’t going to participate much in karaoke. I was kind of sung-out for the time being. I mean, maybe I would get up there and do a song with Percy, Jason, and Leo at some point, but I wanted at least a half hour of rest. I was standing off to the side a bit when Jason came over and started talking to me.

“Hey, Nico.” He smiled.

“Hey,” I replied, idly.

“Having fun?”

“Yeah.” I smiled a little at him. “You?” He nodded.

“Hey, Nico… I’ve been meaning to ask you about something.” He bit his lip. “When… When we went to that underwater cave, and you got really flustered about something… Were you thinking about Percy?” I clenched my fist on my glass at this, my face reddening.

“S-So what if I was?...” I looked away from the blonde.

“Oh… So you’re still not over him…” He sounded almost disappointed. I turned and gave him an exasperated look.

“It’s not that easy to get over someone, Jason. Trust me, I’ve been trying since I was ten.” I rolled my eyes.

“Right…” He bit his lip again. “I’ll uh… Hey, wanna walk around a bit?” I sighed.

“Sure, why not.” Jason and I began walking around the party area. Suddenly, Jason was whisked away by some unknown entity with shaggy, blonde hair. Next thing I knew, I had looked onto the karaoke stage to see Will Solace, Annabeth, and a nervous but excited looking Jason.

“Alright, everyone!” said Annabeth into the microphone. “You all know the song, dance with us!” And to my dismay, the song YMCA began playing. I look exasperatedly up at the stage as the three of them began singing and dancing. It was funny until Jason looked at me and gave me a wink, grinning. God, I hate blondes...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Leo is a cute boy :3
> 
> (that is all. you may go to the next chapter now)


	10. There! Right There!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The cast does Legally Blonde, and Nico isn't very comfortable with his role. Problems arise from Nico's crippling anxiety about his sexuality, which he has to face head-on if he wants to keep his friends, and his role. Being gay and European is pretty hard, you know?  
> (if you don't want to read the chapter, read the notes at the end for a summary of important events.)
> 
> ALSO- I've started putting in hints at the end of chapters as to what the next musical is going to be! Anyone who comments with their guess as to what the next musical is will get a haiku for them written by yours truly. If more than one people get it correct, I'll just write one for whoever got it the fastest.  
> Enjoy! :)

And so, the day came when Leo finally convinced the higher-ups to do his “favourite musical of all time,” Legally Blonde.

“Who would you even play?” asked Annabeth to Leo one day while we were all talking about it during free time. “I mean, I love the show too, but I don’t know if there are any roles that would fit you.” Annabeth, of course, wanted the part of Elle Woods, the main character. She could totally pull it off. I mean, she looked a lot like her already.

“No idea.” Leo grinned. “I just want to do the show, even if I get a small part.”

Legally Blonde the Musical, originally a movie starring Reese Witherspoon, is about a Malibu sorority girl named Elle Woods who has a super hot boyfriend named Warner Huntington III. He dumps her to go to Harvard because apparently she’s not “serious” enough for him. Elle, being totally in love with Warner, gets into Harvard as well and enrolls in classes with him in order to show him how smart she really is. But Harvard is a lot different than Malibu, as she figures out via this awful girl named Vivian Kensington who is actually now Warner’s fiancee. With the help of a new friend, Emmett Forrest, Elle studies and works hard in order to prove how smart she truly is.

I could tell this musical was going to be fun. But what I failed to realise was that while I didn’t fit any main character roles, there were a few more minor ones that I might have a bit, er… trouble with. And, unfortunately, I was landed with one of those roles.

LEGALLY BLONDE CAST LIST

Elle Woods - Piper McLean

Paulette Bonafonte - Clarisse La Rue

Brooke Wyndham - Annabeth Chase

Pilar - Hazel Levesque

Serena - Katie Gardner

Margot - Drew Tanaka

Enid Hoopes - Thalia Grace

Vivienne Kensington - Reyna Ramirez-Arellano

Chutney Wyndham - Gwendolyn

Emmett Forrest - Percy Jackson

Warner Huntington III - Jason Grace

Professor Callahan - Will Solace

Dewey - Grover Underwood

Kyle - Frank Zhang

Sundeep Padaman - Dakota

Aaron Schultz - Jake Mason

Nikos - Nico di Angelo

Carlos - Leo Valdez

It was a big cast, so I had to look down the list for a while before being able to find my name. When I did, I raised an eyebrow.

“Nikos?” I said. “Who’s Nikos?” Suddenly, Leo slung an arm around my shoulders.

“He’s the poolboy! Y’know, ‘Gay or European’ and all that?” He grinned. My face turned paler than usual. “And then it turns out he’s both gay AND European! I think he’s probably Italian, if not Spanish.” At this, my face turned bright red. Shit, I realised. I was gay and European. “And look-” Leo pointed at his own name on the list. “I’m Carlos, that means I’m your boyfriend!” He chuckled. “Cool, huh?” I shrugged him off.

“I… I gotta go…” I bit my lip before walking away, trying to figure out how to deal with such an embarrassing and embarrassingly accurate role.

While I was walking away, I passed by Annabeth, who looked angry for some reason. Oh right, she must have been angry about not getting the lead. Instead, Piper was the lead, with Percy, Annabeth’s boyfriend, as her love interest. I didn’t think Annabeth had much to worry about, though. Percy would never leave her, and Piper and Jason were so close that they were probably never going to break up.

Jason came over to me while I was practicing with my sword on a dummy. I didn’t see him walking up, so I almost accidentally decapitated him as I was swinging my sword. Unfortunately, he ducked out of the way in time so that my blade only brushed the top of his hair.

“Woah, easy there!” He chuckled. I turned to look at him.

“What do you want?” I asked.

“I uh, saw what part you got in the show… You gonna be okay with that?” I blushed.

“I’ll be fine,” I grumbled, turning back to the dummy. Jason put a hand on my shoulder.

“Nico, remember, if you ever need anything, or if you just wanna talk or something, you can always come to me, alright?” He smiled. I looked at him, blinking. He was so nice… As I looked at him I was reminded again of how gorgeous his eyes were. I nodded at him, biting my lip. He grinned and clapped me on the back.

“I gotta go. I promised Will that he could teach me archery if I took him flying sometime. See you!” And with that, he ran off towards the archery range, leaving me with my heart pounding in my chest and my cheeks blushing as red as the paint on the Ares cabin.

So, I ran into a problem at rehearsals. Because of my stupid, crippling anxiety about my sexuality, it’s extremely difficult for me to do or say anything that would even hint at it (I suppose joining musical theatre wasn’t such a bright idea, huh?). And now, because of how awkward I was about trying to sing the song I was in, “Gay or European,” some of the cast apparently thinks I’m homophobic. Like seriously? No. You’ve got it wrong. Literally, I am the complete opposite of homophobic.

Seriously, this is so stupid. Like, I’m not even kidding, after seeing how awkward I was about singing the song, Gwendolyn decided she wanted to have a little “chat” with me.

“Hey, Nico? About your song…” I sighed. Here it comes. She was going to tell me how bad I was.

“Yeah, yeah, I know. I was pretty terrible, wasn’t I-”

“Look I just wanted to say, even if you have a problem with gay people, don’t let that get in the way of your performance.” She frowned at me. “We’re not gonna let the show go down because of some stupid, petty little homophobia.” I blinked a few times, trying to register what she was saying.

“Wait… What?”

“And don’t give me that ‘no homo’ shit, either. You’re playing the role whether you like it or not. And hopefully it’ll knock some acceptance into you. I knew you grew up in the 1930s, but this is 2014. Things are different.” She glared at me before turning her heel and leaving. I gaped at her as she walked away. Did… Did she seriously think I was homophobic? Holy shit, she couldn’t be more wrong.

Jason came over to me, looking confused.

“Gwen looked mad at you, Nico. What was that about?” he asked.

“Apparently, she thinks I’m homophobic,” I replied, still completely shocked. Jason burst out laughing.

“Oh, oh my gods. Seriously? Man, that’s hilarious.”

“Jason!” I glared at him. “Now she’s gonna tell people that I hate gay people! But I don’t! I am a gay people!” Jason stopped laughing, but he was still smiling.

“Well, you could always tell her. I’m sure she’ll be fine with it, especially if she was already willing to stand up to homophobes, even without knowing that one of her friends was gay.” I bit my lip.

“I… I don’t know. I’ll have to think about it. It… It’s hard…” Jason put a comforting hand on my back.

“I know… I can help you, if you want. I’ll be standing right behind you when you tell her, if you want.” I smiled a bit.

“Thanks, Jason. Yeah, I’ll… I’ll think about it.”

I took too long thinking about it. Gwen had started telling people as soon as she got outside the theatre, apparently. Now, people were giving me odd looks everywhere I went. Well, more odd looks than usual. It got to the point where I was spending all my time at either rehearsal, my cabin, or the woods where I could be alone.

One day, after rehearsal, I experienced a repercussion of Gwen’s misconception that nearly broke my heart in two. I was sitting and reading a book in one of the chairs when I heard some voices a little ways away.

“Hey, why is everybody looking at Nico all funny?” It was Percy.

“You haven’t heard?” And there was Gwen’s voice. I looked over at the two of them. They didn’t seem to notice that I was looking at them.

“No,” Percy said, shaking his head. “Did something happen? Is he okay?”

“Nothing happened, Percy, just… I found out something about him…” Percy narrowed his eyes at her.

“What is it?... I’m sure whatever it is, it’s fine-”

“He’s homophobic.” Percy was silent for a bit after Gwen’s words.

“He’s… He is? How do you know?”

“You ever notice how he’s super awkward in his song? Well, I was pretty sure I knew why, so I went to talk to him about it after rehearsal sometime. I told him that in no way were we going to let his stupid ignorance get in the way of our show.”

At that moment, Percy turned his head. When his eyes met mine, I saw a look on his face of hurt, betrayal, and distrust that nearly shattered my heart into a million pieces. Swallowing a lump in my throat, I got up and ran quickly out of the theatre. I flew past Jason as I headed towards the forest.

“Nico, what-” he said.

“G-Gwen told Percy,” I said quickly as I ran by him, trying to keep myself from crying.

I made it to the woods and collapsed onto my knees, my tears preventing me from seeing any farther. I rested against a nearby tree, letting myself come undone and cry. Not only had I now lost any chance of getting Percy to return my feelings for him, but I had also lost him as a friend. I put my sleeve up to my face and cried into it to muffle the sound, lest someone hear me.

Someone did hear me, however. I heard a crunching of leaves behind me but at this point, I didn’t care. Whoever it was probably hated me anyways, so it didn’t matter to them how pathetic I looked.

“Nico…” It was Gwen. “Jason said I would find you here.”

“Why…” I said, trying to control my tears. “W-Why did you tell him…” Gwen crossed her arms. It seemed that her pity for me was limited at the moment.

“Well, you wouldn’t be in this state if you had a little acceptance for people who are different from you-”

“You don’t understand!” I yelled. “I love him…” I sniffled. “I’ve always loved him…”

“You… Wait.” Gwen blinked. “So… you’re…?”

“I’m not fucking homophobic, okay?” I let out a sad, pathetic little laugh. “Oh gods, you couldn’t be more wrong…”

“You were awkward about the song because you didn’t want anyone to know…” she said, understanding. I nodded, wiping my eyes with my sleeve. “Nico…” She knelt down next to me. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, oh my gods…”

“Just leave me alone,” I said, shrugging off the hand she had rested on my shoulder. “And don’t tell anybody.” She bit her lip and nodded before leaving. I sighed, leaning against the tree. Even though Gwen wasn’t going to be spreading lies anymore, there was no way I was going to be able to make peace with Percy now without telling him my secret…

“Nico.”

It was about a day after the incident with Gwen, and I was in the woods again, reading a book. I looked up to see Percy walking towards me with a sour expression on his face. I stood up, a bit scared.

“P-Percy, what do you want-” I was cut off my him grabbing my face and kissing me full on the mouth. I was so confused, I wasn’t completely sure what was happening until it was over.

“There!” he said, angrily. “Me, another guy, just kissed you on the lips. How do you feel about that, huh?” Percy was clearly trying to antagonise me, but I was too stunned to pay any attention to what he was saying.

“You… You just kissed me,” I said, reaching a hand up to feel my lips where Percy’s had touched them.

“Y-Yeah,” he said, still frowning. “So how does that make you feel?” I looked up at him and smiled.

“You just kissed me.” He blinked, obviously confused by my reaction.

“Yes, I did. And as a bisexual male, I cannot have one of my friends being homophobic, I’m sorry. I don’t think we can be friends until you can accept that… and me.” He blushed as he said something that he had only ever told his mother. I looked up at him.

“You’re bi?” I blinked. Was this really happening? This had to be a dream.

“Y-Yeah, what of it? I’m not gonna take any shit, o-okay?”

“Percy, I’m not a homophobe.”

“You… You’re not?”

“No. I…” I looked down blushing. “I’m gay…”

There was silence between us.

“So that’s why you were so awkward about your song. You’re still in the closet…” I nodded, my heart pounding. “Oh…” He cleared his throat. “Well, this is kinda awkward, heheh..” He gave a nervous laugh, and I snorted.

“Yeah, kind of.” I looked at him. “I didn’t know you were bi.”

“No one does..” Now it was his turn to look away and blush. “The only person I’ve told is my mom… Not even Annabeth knows…” I tentatively reached up to put a hand on his arm.

“Percy… Thanks… For telling me. And for being okay with me…” He smiled at me.

“You too, Nico. Thanks…” He bit his lip. “So, uh, don’t tell anybody about me, alright? Not even Annabeth.” I nodded.

“Only if you do the same for me,” I replied.

“Of course.” He hesitated before pulling me into a hug. I blushed and hugged him back, breathing in his scent, basking in his warmth. I knew that this revelation of Percy being bi wasn’t going to change much. After all, he was still with Annabeth, and I could tell that he loved her. But it was still comforting to know that I wasn’t alone, and it was awesome to know that my crush was actually bi.

Percy pulled away after a bit and smiled before turning to leave. I watched him go, reaching a hand up to touch my lips again where Percy had kissed them.

I had told Jason about what happened with Percy. I didn’t tell him that Percy was bi, because Percy was trusting me with that secret, and I would never tell a soul unless he wanted me to. But I did tell Jason about how he had kissed me. Strangely enough, Jason didn’t seem happy for me at all, like I thought he would. Sure, he tried, but he was obviously faking it. I wondered what his problem was? Anyways, after coming out to Gwen and Percy, I found myself having a much easier time with my song.

“So, Mr. Argitacos.” Percy was onstage, interrogating my character during a dress rehearsal. I was wearing a violet, silk shirt and extremely tight pants that I swore to myself after the show I would never wear again. “This alleged affair with Ms. Windam has been going on for..?”

“Two years,” I recited my line, utilising my Italian accent for my role.

“And your first name, again, is?”

“Nikos.” It was still funny how we had almost the same first name.

“And your boyfriend’s name is?”

“Carlos.” There was a collective gasp from the rest of the cast. “I’m sorry! I misunderstand!” I recited as my character tried to cover up his blunder. “You say boyfriend, I thought you say best friend! Carlos is my best friend.” Leo suddenly stood up from one of the pews.

“You bastard, you lying bastard!” he shouted, in-character. “That’s it, I no cover for you no more! Peoples, I have a big announcement!” He turned to the audience and grinned before beginning to sing. “ _This man is gay and European, and neither is his place._ ” He walked over to me as he sang. “ _You’ve got to stop your being a completely closet case._ ” He turned back to the audience. “ _It’s me, not her he’s seeing, no matter what he say! I swear he never, ever, ever swing the other way._ ” He pointed at me. “ _You’re so gay, you big parfait, you flaming boy in cabaret!_ ”

“I’m straight!” my character interjected.

“You were not yesterday.” Leo winked. “ _So if I may, I’m proud to say, he’s gay!_ ”

“ _And European!_ ” sang the rest of the cast.

“ _He’s gay!_ ” sang Leo.

“ _And European!_ ”

“ _He’s gay!_ ”

“ _And European and gay!_ ” I crossed my arms and rolled my eyes.

“Fine, okay, I’m gay.” The song ended with Leo kissing me on the cheek as the rest of the cast shouted “hooray!”. Leo grinned at me as we finished.

“That was totally the best we’ve ever done that song.” He high-fived me.

“Yeah, definitely,” I said with a smile. I glanced over at Percy and saw that he was smiling at me. I blushed and smiled back, thankful that he had helped to give me the courage to be more comfortable with the song. I was happy that I wasn’t nearly as miserable about it as I had been before.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Because of how awkward Nico was about his song about being "gay or European," Gwendolyn thinks he's homophobic, and confronts him about it. Obviously, Nico is not homophobic. In fact, he is the exact opposite of homophobic. However, he can't convince Gwen that he's not a homophobe without coming out to her. But things get worse when Gwen tells Percy that Nico is homophobic. Percy is very hurt and angry about this, and Nico runs into the woods, crying, because now Percy will never want to be his friend, let alone something more. Gwen finds Nico in the forest and Nico tells her about his feelings for Percy, letting Gwen know that no, he wasn't homophobic. Gwen apologises and goes back to camp. The next day, Nico is feeling a bit better, when Percy decides to confront him. In an obvious attempt to antagonise him, Percy kisses Nico, because he thinks that Nico will be repulsed by it. Of course, however, Nico is just stunned. Percy then reveals that he is bisexual, but his mother is the only one who knows. He hadn't even told Annabeth. Nico then comes out to Percy as gay, and the two hug and make up.  
> But when Nico tells Jason about the kiss he shared with Percy, Jason is less than pleased. Nico can't figure out why, though...


	11. A Little Fall of Rain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They're doing Les Mis, and the characters get up to a lot of shenanigans (stupid summary, but whatever. just read the damn chapter).  
> WARNING: this chapter has mentions of sex, blood, and the French.  
> Also, my winter break begins on the 19th, and I'm going to be super busy for all of it (I've got two conventions, and I gotta study for finals, in addition to holiday stuff), so I probably won't resume writing until maybe the 5th of January? Just hang in there, guys! I'm not gonna cancel this fic!
> 
> ALRIGHT so last time, I told you guys that the first person who guessed the next musical would get a personal haiku. So here is a haiku for Nyaha:
> 
> Yay for Nyaha!  
> You guessed the right musical!  
> You go, 4 for you!
> 
> I'll give a haiku to whoever guesses the next musical too! (also i tried to make it a bit harder this time but idk) :)

Unfortunately, like in Jersey Boys, Hazel was going to die in the show again. But I guess that’s not saying much because in this show, so was Leo, Frank, Reyna, Dakota, and me.

Les Miserables is just an extremely depressing French musical. I guess you could say it’s, well, miserable. Basically, almost everybody dies. It’s about a guy named Jean Valjean who steals a loaf of bread and gets sent to prison. Then he’s let out on parole and is chased by this police guy named Javert. Valjean finds this dying woman named Fantine and promises to take care of her daughter. He finds the daughter, Cosette, and rescues her from this awful couple, Monsieur and Madame Thenardier. She grows up and they move to this town where Cosette meets this guy named Marius and falls in love, meanwhile, Marius and his friends (which include guys named Enjolras and Grantaire, along with this girl named Eponine who is actually the daughter of the Thenardiers, and is also crushing big-time on Marius) are planning to build a barricade in protest to their government. They do this and it fails because Marius’s friends all die. Marius almost dies, but he’s rescued by Valjean. Valjean also rescues Javert at some point, which causes Javert to commit suicide (overreaction, much?). Cosette and Marius go and get married and then Valjean dies. The end.

What a long-ass show. Long-as-fuck depressing show. But anyways, I thought the cast list was pretty well made.

LES MISERABLES CAST LIST

Jean Valjean - Leo Valdez

Javert - Frank Zhang

Fantine - Hazel Levesque

Thenardier - Percy Jackson

Madame Thenardier - Annabeth Chase

Eponine - Reyna Ramirez-Arellano

Cosette - Piper McLean

Enjolras - Nico di Angelo

Marius - Jason Grace

Grantaire - Dakota

My part wasn’t all too big, but it was good. I got to lead the song “Do You Hear the People Sing,” which is like, a hugely famous song. Also I thought that giving the part of the drunk to Dakota was very well-played, so kudos to whoever did that.

“Okay. Never have I ever… Been able to breathe underwater.”

“Fuck you, Leo.” Percy put a finger down.

We were playing ‘Never Have I Ever,’ a game that Leo had suggested. The rules were that each player held up ten fingers and would go around the circle, each person saying something that they had never done. Anyone who had done that thing would put a finger down, and the first person to lose all ten fingers lost.

“Alright,” said Jason. “Never have I ever been able to control a skeleton.” Frank and I both begrudgingly put our fingers down. The guys in the cast (minus Dakota, who had fallen asleep somewhere) were playing the game backstage after a rehearsal.

“Never have I ever been hit in the face with a brick,” I said, in retaliation to Jason’s skeleton thing. He huffed and put a finger down.

“Come on, guys!” said Leo. “Let’s make this more interesting! Like, stuff we don’t already know about each other.”

“Like what?” asked Jason.

“Well,” said Leo. “Never have I ever been fingered.” We looked around at the circle. Jason put a finger down. So did Percy.

“What?!”

“No way!”

“Dudes, when?!” Jason turned scarlet.

“P-Piper’s kinky..” he said. Something sour turned in my stomach at the thought of Jason and Piper doing that stuff. All of us turned to look at Percy. He opened his mouth and closed it again, trying to think of something to say.

“You know what, I don’t even have a valid excuse. L-Let’s just stop talking about this…” He bit his lip, his face bright red. Leo chuckled.

“Jesus Christ, I had no idea you guys were such kinky shits.”

“Shut up, Leo,” said Percy, giving the other boy a playful shove.

“Alright, guys. My turn.” Frank grinned. “Never have I ever kissed another guy.” There was silence in the circle. Slowly, almost in unison, Jason, Percy, and I all put our fingers down.

“Oh man, you two again?” Leo looked bemused. “And you too, Nico? Wait, didn’t Gwen say you were homophobic or some shit?” I sighed.

“I’m not homophobic, Leo.”

“Yeah, I didn’t think so.” He looked at the three of us. “So who did you guys kiss?” He looked at Percy, who looked at the ground.

“Uh, Nico…” God damnit, Percy. Leo raised an eyebrow and looked at Jason.

“A-Also Nico…” God damnit, Jason. Leo turned to me.

“Well, you have your answers,” I said, pointing at Jason and Percy. Leo whistled.

“Damn, Nico. Who knew you were such a slut?”

“Leo, shut the fuck up.” Leo merely burst out into a fit of laughter.

“I was just teasing! But seriously, though. Daaammmmn.”

“LEO.”

“Alright, alright. I’m done.” By this time, Jason and Percy were laughing too. Okay, I guess it was kind of funny…

 

“I didn’t know you kissed Nico.”

I wasn’t supposed to be hearing this conversation. Jason and Percy had no idea I was listening to them talking. But I mean, the conversation was about me, so I thought I had the right to hear it.

Percy, who had spoken, was looking at Jason, his eyes narrowed.

“Well, I have…” Jason blushed. “Before you did.” His tone was antagonising, almost like he was challenging Percy. Percy huffed.

“Before me? Why does that matter?”

“I guess it doesn’t… But wait a minute, Percy, you have a girlfriend.”

“So do you.” There was silence between the two of them. One could almost taste the tension in the air.

“Well, I mean, yeah, but… Does Annabeth know?” Jason asked. Percy was silent.

“W-Well… Does Piper know?”

“Yes.”

“Seriously?”

“It’s just ‘cause of the circumstances..”

“What were the circumstances?”

“Well, It was during Hairspray, and Nico was really nervous about kissing Clarisse, because he had never kissed anybody before, so I offered…” Percy frowned.

“Fuck, that’s actually really sweet of you,” he said with a chuckle. Jason laughed.

“I dunno… But yeah, I was just helping out a friend. So Piper’s fine with it.”

“Hm..” They were silent again. “Aren’t you curious as to why I kissed him?”

“Ah, no. Nico already told me.” Percy’s face fell.

“Wait. He told you?” Jason nodded. “How much did he tell you?”

“Well, he told me you kissed him…”

“And?” To Jason, it seemed as if Percy had revealed something to Nico that he didn’t want anybody else to know.

“Th-that you did it ‘cause you thought he was homophobic, so you thought kissing him would make him uncomfortable…”

“Anything else?” Jason shook his head.

“No.. That’s pretty much it.”

“Alright..” Percy seemed relieved.

As the rehearsals progressed, I found myself sympathising quite a lot with the character of Eponine. She was the poor girl in the shadows who had been in love with a boy who would never love her back since she was a child. She lamented about this in her song, “On My Own,” talking about how she always had to be on her own, no matter how hard she wished for her love to be beside her. She sang of how he was so important to her, but nothing in his life would change if she were to just disappear. I suppose that was foreshadowing, because she ended up dying in her love, Marius’s arms. Their song, “A Little Fall of Rain,” was so touching, I thought I saw Jason even shed a tear during it. I really liked Eponine. Her situation reminded me of my own. A neglectful father, an unrequited love… We were one and the same. At least, that’s how I viewed it.

*~-~*

I was dying.

There was a wound in my chest, I was losing blood quickly.

“Nico.. Nico!” Strong arms wrapped around me. I looked up and my blurry vision caught the outline of Percy Jackson, the boy I loved. “Nico, oh my gods…” I gave a weak smile.

 _“D-Don’t you fret, my dear Percy, I don’t feel any pain… A little fall of rain.. can hardly hurt me now…”_ I reached up to wipe the tears off of his face. At least, I thought they were tears, though it could have just been the rain. _“You’re here… That’s all I need to know. And you will keep me safe… And you will keep me close… And rain will make the flowers grow…”_ Percy shook his head, still crying.

 _“But you will live, Nico, dear gods above…”_ Something was happening to Percy. His voice was changing, and so was his appearance. _“If I could heal your wounds..”_ He was getting taller, with blonde hair. His voice was softer. _“With words of love…”_ Jason.

 _“Just hold me now, and let it be,”_ I said, reaching up to stroke Jason’s cheek. _“Shelter me, comfort me…”_

 _“You would live a hundred years, if I could show you how,”_ he sang in that sweet voice of his. _“I won’t desert you now.”_

 _“The rain can’t hurt me now… The rain will wash away what’s past. And you will keep me safe. And you will keep me close. I’ll sleep in your embrace at last… The rain that brings you here, is Heaven-blessed! The skies begin to clear, and I’m at rest. A breath away from where you are. I’ve come here from so far…”_ And then we began to sing in unison.

_“Hush-a-bye, dear Nico…”_

_“Don’t you fret, dear Jason, I don’t feel any pain.”_

_“You won’t feel any pain. A little fall of rain-”_

_“Can hardly hurt me now.”_

_“Can hardly hurt you now. I’m here..”_

_“That’s all I need to know. And you will keep me safe.”_

_“I’ll stay with you ‘til you are sleeping.”_

_“And you will keep me close. And rain…”_

_“And rain…”_

_“Will make the flowers…”_

_“Will make the flowers…”_

*~-~*

I woke with a start. I put a hand to my chest where the wound had been. Gods, it had seemed so real… I looked up when I heard a knock at my door. Who the Hell would be here at this hour? I got out of bed and went to open the door to my cabin. Jason was standing outside. It was raining.

“N-Nico..” He stepped inside and immediately hugged me.

“J-Jason, you’re all wet!” I exclaimed. Jason stepped back.

“R-Right, sorry..” He took off his jacket, which was wet from the rain, and hugged me again. “Nico, I just had this awful dream…”

“Shit… I think I might have had the same one.”

“Really?” he asked. I sighed.

“Don’t you fret, dear Jason…”

“Yeah… Gods, it was terrible…” I shivered as I felt Jason running his fingers through my hair. I came to the realisation that Jason didn’t have a shirt on.

“Jason… Are you only wearing your boxers?” I asked. Jason blushed.

“I-I was kind of in a hurry to get over here, so I didn’t bother to change. I just like, put on shoes and a jacket pretty much…” He bit his lip. I snorted. Typical Jason. We stayed like that for a good few minutes, just the two of us standing in the middle of my cabin, Jason holding me close…

“Nico… You’re like, my best friend, you know that?” Jason said, softly. I hadn’t known that. I knew that Jason was my best friend, but I didn’t know he felt the same towards me..

“I thought Leo was your best friend?”

“He.. He is, but.. He’s not… Not like you… You’re different.”

“Why am I different?” I asked. Jason was silent.

“I don’t know..” he said, quietly. We stood there for a while longer before Jason spoke again.

“Can I stay here tonight?..” he asked. Now, in my defense, I was extremely tired, and thereby wasn’t thinking completely clearly.

“Sure, whatever,” I said. I pulled away from Jason and went over to my bed. I got into bed, Jason soon following suit and wrapping his arms around me. I snuggled into him, too tired to think about how strange and awkward this was.

“‘Night, Nico,” Jason said, softly. I hummed a bit in response before feeling myself drift off to sleep.

Sunlight was filtering through the cracks in my cabin the next morning. I was extremely comfortable, and absolutely no part of me wanted to move. I was aware of the fact that I was snuggled up to Jason, who had his arms wrapped around me almost like I was a teddy bear. I was incredibly warm and content to stay in his arms for as long as possible, for I knew that he would leave as soon as he woke up. I wanted to make this moment count. After all, it wasn’t every day that you woke up in the arms of an extremely hot demigod. Unfortunately, Jason woke up not too long after I did. He yawned and stretched, sitting up a bit. I propped myself up on my elbow as the door to my cabin suddenly opened.

“Hey Nico, have you seen Jason- woah. Ho-holy shit..!” Leo started cracking up. “Jesus fucking Christ, guys! Did you seriously- Woah. Oh, man.” I turned scarlet when I realised what this must have looked like to Leo.

“No, w-we didn’t..!”

“Oh man, I knew you guys kissed, but I didn’t know you guys were actually a thing!”

“Leo, we didn’t do anything!” Jason exclaimed, also blushing.

“Sure, which is why you’re in his bed, wearing nothing but boxers.” Jason pulled the blanket up to cover himself at Leo’s words.

“Listen, we had a shared nightmare,” I began. “So Jason came into my cabin to make sure I was okay and then ended up falling asleep here.”

“In you bed, in nothing but boxers.”

“I was in a hurry to get over here!” Jason defended himself. “So I just sorta put on a jacket and shoes, and that’s it!”

“Even if that’s true,” Leo said. “There are like, four other beds in here, and you’re still sleeping in the same one.” We didn’t have a good excuse for this. Jason sighed and got up.

“We didn’t do anything, Leo. Shit, what time is it?”

“It’s late enough that everyone else is awake and going about their day at camp, and so there’s gonna be a whole bunch of people to see you take your walk of shame.” Leo chuckled.

“Walk of- oh, no. No way.” Jason shook his head.

“Walk of shame?” I looked between the two, confused. Jason sighed again.

“After a one-night stand, the person whose house it wasn’t at has to walk down the stairs and out the door, right? That’s the walk of shame.” I raised an eyebrow.

“But we didn’t have a one-night stand.”

“But,” Leo chimed in. “The fact that he’s gonna have to walk out of your cabin in nothing but a pair of boxers is totally gonna make it look like you did.” I turned even more red. I stood up.

“Leo, get out. I’m going to get dressed, then I’m going to go over to Jason’s cabin and get his clothes.” I frowned. Leo sighed.

“Fine, fine. I guess I’ll just keep the hilarity of the situation to myself, then.”

“You’d better.” I raised an eyebrow at Leo, who chuckled before leaving. Jason sat down on the bed.

“Jeez, I wasn’t thinking about how awkward the situation would look when I came into the cabin last night,” he said as I was getting dressed.

“Yeah, well, I wasn’t either. So.” I shrugged on my jacket. “Stay put,” I said before leaving to go to Jason’s cabin. I thought about how cute it was to see Jason blushing like that. He was always so majestic, so leaderly, that it was like seeing the human side of a high and mighty king.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The only important thing that really happened is that Percy found out that Jason kissed Nico, and they had a little conversation about it, in which Jason is quite obviously jealous of Percy's kiss with Nico.  
> Then at the end of the chapter, Jason and Nico have a shared nightmare, so Jason goes over to Nico's cabin and ends up falling asleep with him.


	12. Be Prepared

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gang perform the Lion King! This chapter is shorter than the last few, but there's gonna be a huge chapter in a little while, so. Also, I gave Percy and Annabeth middle names (sorry if you have a different headcanon for it).
> 
> Alrighty, Poblife guessed the musical right, so they get a haiku!
> 
> Nants ingonyama  
> Bagithi Baba sithi  
> Uhm ingonyama
> 
> (ayyy that's the beginning from the Circle of Life i'm so clever haha)  
> (also there's gonna be a summary at the end of the chapter again if you don't want to read it (like if you don't know the lion king))

As in several previous shows, I was once again a main character, and a person I cared about was once again going to die. And yes, I could admit now that I really did care about Jason, a lot. He was my best friend, and I had been developing a pretty big crush on him, ever since we did Hairspray a while back. I was going to be playing Simba, and Jason was going to be playing my father, Mufasa, in the Lion King. I was going to be honest, the casting choices for this show were pure gold.

LION KING CAST LIST

Simba - Nico di Angelo

Nala - Piper McLean

Mufasa - Jason Grace

Scar - Percy Jackson

Zazu - Annabeth Chase

Sarabi - Reyna Ramirez-Arellano

Timon - Leo Valdez

Pumba - Frank Zhang

Shenzi - Hazel Levesque

Banzai - Clarisse La Rue

Ed - Dakota

Rafiki - Will Solace

Piper and I were paired together again. Why the directors liked us together so much, I would never know. But Percy got to play the villain, and I knew he was going to be great. Meanwhile, Annabeth was going to be Zazu, which she was super excited about. Then we had Leo and Frank as the awesome, gay, interspecies couple that raised Simba for a while, and Hazel was leading the hyenas, and Will Solace landed the role of the cool, crazy monkey. I had hung out with Will a few times, and he was pretty cool (though he often fussed about my constant unhealthiness). He was going to have so much fun playing Rafiki.

I was practicing my song when one of the Hermes kids ran up to me, handed me an envelope, and ran away again. I stood there blinking for a few seconds, not completely sure what had just happened. Oh wait, I had forgotten that sometimes the Hermes kids would deliver mail to the campers. I had never gotten mail before. I turned the envelope over to look at it. Sure enough, it was addressed to me. I looked in the corner to see who the sender was. It was from Percy and Annabeth. Wait, was this…? I opened the envelope and slid out the card. Sure enough, a big ‘YOU’RE INVITED!’ was written in a pretty shade of blue on the front. I read the card.

‘ _You are cordially invited to witness the marriage of Percy Martin Jackson and Annabeth Louise Chase!’_ Beneath this statement was the date, time, and location. It was going to be at a temple in New Rome in a little less than a year. I sighed. I didn’t really want to see my crush marrying someone else, but I knew I had to go. Percy was my friend, and so was Annabeth. I had to be there for them.

“Nico!” Percy came running up to me. “Oh good, you got the invitation.” He smiled as he looked at the card in my hand. “Listen, so, would you maybe wanna be one of my groomsmen?” He looked at me. I blinked.

“Um, sure,” I replied. Percy grinned.

“Awesome. It’s gonna be you, Jason, Frank, and Leo.”

“Who’s your best man?” I asked.

“Grover, who else?” He chuckled. “The colour scheme is gonna be light blue, by the way. The groomsmen and the bridesmaids are all going to be wearing the same colour.”

“Who are the bridesmaids?”

“Not completely sure, but I know for a fact that Piper, Hazel, Reyna, and Thalia are bridesmaids.” I nodded. I wasn’t as upset about talking about Percy’s wedding as I thought I would be.

“I’m really excited for this..” Percy smiled at the ground. I smiled at the blissful look on his face.

“You guys really are a great couple.. You and Annabeth..” I said.

“Yeah..” he replied. He sighed, happily. “Well, I gotta go talk to Leo. See you around, Nico!” Before I could do or say anything, Percy was coming in for a hug. I sighed and hugged him before watching him walk away. I was still marveling about how I was legitimately happy for Percy, instead of just being jealous like I normally was about stuff like this. Maybe it was because of my newfound feelings for Jason… I sighed again. I had moved on from one hopeless crush, right onto another.

 

Jeez, I really had to stop getting so emotional over my friends dying in shows. Well, actually, I was supposed to get emotional for this one. After all, I did have to react onstage to finding my “father’s” dead body. It was really easy to picture that it was real, because all of us had already come so close to dying so many times, it was a wonder it hadn’t actually happened yet.

So there I was, fighting back tears as I looked at Jason lying very still on the ground. I was playing his son, so I had to sort of cuddle up to his “dead” body and lay there for a bit while calling out for somebody, anybody to help me. It would have been a lot more awkward if Jason hadn’t been playing dead the whole time. Even still, Leo kept laughing every time it happened, remembering that time last show when he walked into my cabin while Jason was in my bed with me. That was so embarrassing...

Anyways, after the scene one day, I was sitting next to Jason and he was looking at me.

“Nico, are you okay?” he asked. I blushed a bit and nodded. Why did I have to get so emotional all the time?... “Okay… You just seem like, on the verge of tears. Do you wanna talk?” At this, I shook my head. Without thinking much about it, I leaned to the side and rested my weight against Jason. “N-Nico, what-”

“Shut up,” I said, quietly. Jason shut his mouth and simply let me rest against him.

“ _So prepare for a chance of a lifetime. Be prepared for sensational news! A shining new era is tiptoeing nearer-_ ” I was right. Percy played an amazing villain.

I was backstage, listening to his song with Piper, mouthing along dramatically.

“ _I know it sounds sordid, but you’ll be rewarded, when at last I am given my dues! And in justice deliciously squared, be prepared!- FUCK!_ ” Piper and I looked at the stage in time to see Percy trip over one of the hyenas and fall right off of the stage. We quickly ran over to him.

“Percy, are you okay? Do you need some ambrosia and nectar?” Percy was laying on the ground, his face screwed up in pain.

“N-No, I’m fine- ah, shit…” He had tried to sit up, but apparently his hip hurt really bad or something, because he laid back down. “I think I broke something.”

“Shit, you didn’t break your hip, did you?” I asked. He shook his head.

“No, I think my hip is just bruised up really bad. I think I broke my wrist..” He lifted up his arm, where his wrist was beginning to swell. “I tried to break my fall with it…”

“Shit.. Somebody get him some ambrosia and nectar!” I shouted to anybody who was listening.

“Way ahead of you,” said Will Solace, pushing me a bit to the side as he helped Percy eat some ambrosia. “Here,” he said, taking Percy’s arm and wrapping it up with a splint. “Alright, let’s get you to the infirmary ward, yeah?” He helped Percy up, but Percy yelped and sat back down again.

“When I said my hip was bruised, I meant like, really super bruised,” he said, wincing in pain. Will turned to me.

“Nico, stay here with him. I’m gonna run for a wheelchair,” he said. I nodded and he scurried off. I sighed and looked at Percy.

“Percy, you dumb fuck.” I cracked a smile at him and he started laughing.

“Yeah, that was pretty stupid. I tripped over a goddamn hyena.” He grinned. I chuckled.

“Jeez, you think you’ll be able to be in the show?” I asked. Percy bit his lip.

“I sure hope so. I’m pretty sure I will be, I mean, it’s only my wrist.”

“What about your hip?”

“That’ll heal pretty soon.” He shrugged. I nodded.

“I guess you’re right.” Soon enough, Will came back with a wheelchair and the two of us helped Percy onto it.

“Alright, I’m gonna take Percy to the infirmary,” Will said to everyone gathered around us. “You guys can continue with rehearsal.” And with that, he wheeled Percy away. Jason walked over to me, watching them go.

“Is Percy okay?” he asked. I shrugged.

“He’ll be fine. It’s just his wrist. And he bruised his hip, but he’s strong.” I nodded. Jason hummed in response before laughing.

“It’s funny how Scar fell off the stage,” he said, smiling. I smiled as well.

“Yeah, that is pretty funny, now that you mention it.” Jason smiled at me. I smiled back at him.

Percy’s hip was well enough so that he could be in the show, even if he did have to wear a cast on his wrist. The show ended up pretty good, actually. I got a few tears out during Mufasa’s death scene, which the audience loved.

After the show, we all went down to the beach. I was about to sit down in the shade when Jason ran up to me.

“Hey, Percy and I are gonna go swimming. Wanna come?” he asked with a smile. I thought about it for a bit. Normally, I’d say no, but… I nodded and stood up. I smiled as I followed Jason to swim in the ocean with my friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nico gets invited to be a groomsman at Percy's wedding! Also Percy falls off the stage and breaks his wrist and hurts his hip.


	13. Kiss the Girl

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now they do the Little Mermaid! Again, this chapter is kinda short, and it's also not totally important.  
> Look out for Harry Potter references lol
> 
> Alrighty, here's a haiku for Ashley!
> 
> As I look out my  
> window, I cry very hard  
> Why am I so gay?
> 
> [edit]: alrighty, here's a little incentive. I'm not gonna post another chapter until someone either guesses the next musical correctly, or until i get at least three wrong guesses from you guys.  
> if you get it wrong, it really doesn't matter! just have fun guessing :) (here's a hint: John Barrowman)

Yeah, I really didn’t do so well with this audition. My voice cracked in the middle of singing and I tripped during the acting portion, so it was no surprise when the cast list for the Little Mermaid went up and I was playing the fish sidekick.

LITTLE MERMAID CAST LIST

Ariel - Hazel Levesque

Sebastian - Percy Jackson

Flounder - Nico di Angelo

Eric - Jason Grace

Ursula - Reyna Ramirez-Arellano

Triton - Frank Zhang

Scuttle - Leo Valdez

Grimsby - Dakota

I mean, it wasn’t a bad role. And it was probably the best role for me, anyways. Everyone else’s role fit them pretty well, so I suppose that meant that I was sort of stuck with flounder. I was really excited that Hazel got the lead role again. When was the last time she had had a lead, again? Was it Grease? I couldn’t remember. No matter how excited I was, though, Hazel was even more excited. When we had our Disney marathon with our friends, the Little Mermaid had been Hazel’s favourite, and now she got to play Ariel.

“Isn’t it exciting?” she asked, grinning, as we were sitting at lunch one day.

“Yeah, it is.” I nodded.

“You’ll be a great Ariel,” added Percy, who had taken to sitting at our table so he wouldn’t have to be alone at the Poseidon table.

“Yeah, you’re gonna be terrific!” said Jason, who had been doing the exact same thing as Percy. Hazel smiled and looked at me.

“And you’re going to be my best friend, Flounder!” She nudged me, playfully. I nodded, smiling a bit.

“Yeah…”

“Oh, this show is going to be so fun!” Hazel said, dreamily.

“I’ll say,” said Percy, grinning. “You guys have no idea how much I fucking love the Little Mermaid, okay. Like, when I was little, my entire room was themed like the Little Mermaid, I shit you not. I had this whole ‘under the sea’ wallpaper, and an Ariel blanket, and all that jazz.” Jason and I laughed, picturing how Percy’s childhood bedroom must have looked like.

“Yeah, that’s like me, except with Harry Potter,” Jason added.

“You like Harry Potter?” I asked. Jason nodded.

“Yep, Ravenclaw and proud!” He grinned, puffing out his chest with pride.

“You’re a Ravenclaw?” Percy asked, gaping. I was surprised too, like I mentioned in a previous chapter, Jason was about as intellectual as that brick that was thrown at his face that one time.

“Yeah, what are you?” Jason asked Percy.

“Hufflepuff…” Percy muttered, looking away.

“You’re a Hufflepuff?” I asked. Percy nodded. “Huh, me too.”

“I really thought I was gonna be Gryffindor, y’know? But most of the quizzes put me as Hufflepuff.” He crossed his arms and pouted.

“Come on, Hufflepuff’s not so bad,” Jason said, patting Percy on the back. “At least you’re not in Slytherin.”

“Hey, Reyna and I are in Slytherin,” Hazel said, narrowing her eyes.

“Huh? You are?” Jason looked at me. “I had no idea.”

“And then you get to be in the same house as Annabeth…” Percy was still complaining to Jason about being in Hufflepuff. “‘Cus she’s a Ravenclaw too, like you…”

“Come on, Percy, Grover’s also a Hufflepuff. He’s your best friend.” Jason smiled at him. Percy nodded.

“Yeah, and Frank’s a Hufflepuff, too,” I added.

“Jeez, why are there so many goddamn Hufflepuffs?” asked Leo, coming to sit with us.

“Well, what are you?” asked Hazel.

“Gryffindor,” he said, proudly. Percy huffed.

“Goddamn Gryffindors…”

“Hey, Piper’s a Gryffindor!” said Jason, frowning at Percy.

“Why the Hell are you all getting so worked up about your Hogwarts houses?” asked Will Solace, who happened to be passing by the table. Leo pointed a finger at him.

“YOU DON’T KNOW!!!!” he screeched. Will simply blinked several times, before walking away.

“Great, Leo, you scared off Will,” said Jason.

“Yeah, I wanted to know what his house was,” said Percy in agreement.

“But he doesn’t take it seriously enough!” complained Leo. I sighed. Why was my group of friends just a group of morons?

There was another cast party after the show this time. However, to fit with the underwater theme of the show, Percy found a cool island that we could have the party on. So, after the show, the entire cast got into rowboats to row to the island (with the exception of Percy, who swam). Jason and I were in a boat together, and so far, it was going pretty well. Except for the fact that we were completely off course.

“Jason, where the fuck are we going?” I asked, looking around.

“You’ll see. It’s just a quick detour. We’ll just be a little late, is all.” I watched as he rowed us to what looked like a sort of lagoon. There was a willow tree hanging down over a beautiful area, full of plantlife in all shades of blue, green, and purple.

“Wow… This is beautiful…” I said, looking around.

“You like it?” Jason smiled. “I found it a while ago..” I nodded.

“ _Now’s your moment, floating in the blue lagoon. Boy, you better do it soon. No time will be better. He don’t say a word and he won’t say a word until you kiss the girl- er, boy._ ” What the Hell? Jason and I turned around to see Leo in a rowboat a little ways away from us.

“Leo, what-”

“S _ha-la-la-la-la-la don’t be scared, you got the mood prepared, go on and kiss the boy!_ ”

“Leo.”

“ _Sha-la-la-la-la-la don’t stop now, don’t try to hide it how, you want to kiss the boy._ ”

“Leo!” I yelled, frowning.

“Leo, what are you singing about?” Jason asked.

“Oh nothing, just the fact that you two are entirely cliche and stupid and adorable.” He chuckled.

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” I asked, glaring at Leo.

“It means that I think you guys should totally skip the party and just hang out here and make out.”

“What?!”

“Speaking of the party, where is it?” Leo asked. “‘Cus I was just following you guys ‘cus I thought you were going to the island, and now I’m completely lost.”

“O-Oh, just go that way,” Jason pointed. “You’ll find it.”

“Thanks, man.”

“Hey, but, what… You think we should… I’m sorry… Make out?” Jason’s face was scarlet.

“Well, duh.” Leo smiled. “There’s so much tension between you two, you should seriously just get on with it already.”

“But… Leo, what about Piper?” Jason asked. Leo frowned.

“Shit, you’re still with Piper?”

“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be with Piper?”

“Well… ‘Cus of Nico, I assumed.” Leo shrugged. Jason blinked and looked at me. “Well,” said Leo. “I should probably go. See you at the party.” And with that, he rowed away, leaving me and Jason in stunned silence. I didn’t speak. I was afraid that if I opened my mouth I would spill all of my feelings to Jason. Jason wasn’t speaking either, but I wasn’t sure why.

After a long period of time, Jason cleared his throat. “W-We should get back to the party.” I nodded in agreement and we rowed away. I looked at Jason as we rowed. Why did I have to be such a prisoner of love?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Leo ships Jasico. That's basically all that's really important here. OH! And Nico pretty much accepts now that he has feelings for Jason.


	14. That Face

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now they're doing the Producers!   
> I know a lot of you probably haven't seen this musical, but you can probably find it online somewhere! The original is on netflix (starring Gene Wilder), but it isn't as much of a musical as the newer one is (starring Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick, featuring John Barrowman). So yeah it's a hilarious musical and everybody should watch it.  
> Nico gives a full summary of the show in the chapter, so it'll make sense, but if you really don't want to read it just skip to the notes at the end.
> 
> ok so it took a hella long time for you guys to guess this one, but finally, Shiro managed to do it! so they are getting TWO haikus!! (or just one haiku with 2 stanzas)
> 
> i should go to sleep  
> 'cus i have school tomorrow  
> but who the fuck cares
> 
> my bed is right there  
> i could go over to it  
> but i don't wanna
> 
> :)  
> the next hint should be a breeze. i made it easy lol  
> enjoy!  
> (also may i just say that this cast is my favourite in this entire story)

“Nico?”

I turned around and immediately my face grew hot.

“C-Calypso…” How the Hell did she get here? Right, Leo, probably went and got her from that island.

“Hey, long time no see.” She smiled. I nodded.

“Yeah,” I said, my mouth dry. I had met Calypso before. Lots of heroes went to Calypso’s island when they were on the brink of death. I was one of them. Calypso had also been cursed to love every unattainable demigod that landed on her island. Most of the time, it was because they had to leave and save the world, or they already had a girlfriend. When I went to the island, however, I didn’t have either of those. I was ready to give up living in the real world. I didn’t have anyone or anything to save, really. I was the one who needed the most saving. And I obviously didn’t have a girlfriend. When Calypso found out about this, she was so excited. It was heartbreaking to tell her that I couldn’t love her anyways. I had told Calypso my secret under the impression that I was never going to see her again, and now here she was, standing in front of me. “U-Um, how did you get off the island?” I asked.

“Leo.” She smiled. “He’s so sweet..” I nodded. “So,” she grinned at me. “How’s Percy?” My face reddened.

“Listen.” I stepped closer to her, whispering. “Don’t tell anyone about that, okay? No one’s supposed to know…” She nodded.

“I understand..” She smiled at me. I gave her a soft smile back.

“Calypso?” It was another voice, one that both Calypso and I knew all too well. We turned to see Percy walking towards us. “Hey, Calypso, hi! You got off the island!” He grinned. She smiled and nodded.

“Yeah, Leo helped me.”

“That’s great!”

“Yes, and I’m also auditioning for the play!” I looked at her.

“Really?” I asked. She nodded.

“I think it would be fun to be in a show with Leo!” She grinned. Percy looked at me, then back at Calypso.

“Hey, you know Nico?” he asked.

“We’ve… met,” I said, shifting my feet uncomfortably. Percy blinked and looked at me.

“Wait, you never told me you-”

“It wasn’t really important, okay?” I shrugged. “You’re lucky I didn’t stay on that island. I wouldn’t have had to deal with all this shit.” Calypso giggled.

“No,” she said. “I think it’s good that you didn’t stay.”

“Really?” I looked at her. She nodded.

“You didn’t belong on that island. You belonged with your friends, and besides, I hear you had a big role in saving the world.” I blushed when she said this.

“I-I guess…”

“Damn right he did!” said Percy. “Nico’s the bomb!” I snorted and Calypso giggled again.

“Are you two auditioning for the play?” she asked Percy and I. We both nodded. “What are you singing for your auditions?”

“I’m singing Springtime For Hitler,” said Percy.

“I’m singing I Want To Be A Producer,” I added with a nod. “How about you?”

“Oh, I’m going to sing When You Got It, Flaunt It.” She smiled.

“Good one,” said Percy. “Well, good luck- I mean, break a leg to both of you. I gotta go. See you!” He waved a hand and left. I turned to Calypso.

“Well… It’s nice seeing you again,” I said.

“Yeah, it’s nice seeing the world again.” She sighed, happily. “I’m going to go find Leo. I guess I’ll see you at dinner?” I nodded.

“Yeah…” She smiled and walked away.

I got a minor role in the show, but holy shit did I love this cast. This show was going to be so awesome, I couldn’t wait. … Except for the fact that Jason and I were sort of paired together.

THE PRODUCERS CAST LIST

Leopold Bloom - Leo Valdez

Max Bialystock - Frank Zhang

Ulla Inga tor Hansen Benson Yansen Tallen Hallen Svaden Swanson Bloom - Calypso

Roger De Bris - Jason Grace

Carmen Ghia - Nico di Angelo

Franz Liebkind - Percy Jackson

Of course, Leo got cast as the main character, Leo. Calypso was his love interest, and Frank was his best friend. Percy was a funny, not very intelligent neo-Nazi, Jason was a crossdressing director, and I was Jason’s assistant. Also, both Jason and my characters were very, very, well… gay.

I should probably explain what the fuck the Producers is even about.

Basically, there’s this guy named Max Bialystock who used to be a famous Broadway producer, but now all of his shows are flops. His accountant, Leo Bloom, figures out that under the right circumstances, a show that’s a flop could make more money than a show that’s a hit. So Max signs Leo on to become a producer with him and they set out to find the worst play ever written, the worst director who ever lived, and then they raise $2 million to “fund the play,” when in actuality they’re going to use it to go to Rio de Janeiro. They go through many plays until they find Springtime for Hitler, written by Franz Liebkind, a neo-Nazi. Then they find Roger de Bris, an extremely eccentric director. Together, they put on Springtime For Hitler, starring Franz Liebkind as Hitler. Meanwhile, Max has been collecting money from various little old ladies that he is acquainted with. However, Franz breaks his leg right before the show starts, so Roger de Bris goes on as Hitler instead. Because Roger acts so stereotypically gay the whole time, the audience takes the whole thing as a satire and ends up loving it to bits. So, the show becomes a hit. Max and Franz are then arrested, but Leo and Ulla, his love interest, manage to avoid arrest, and they go to Rio. There, they get married. Then when Max goes to court, Leo shows up to testify for him, and they both end up in prison, where they make a new show called “Prisoners of Love.” Because of how successful the show was in prison, they get out of prison and get the show onto Broadway. And that’s the entire plot of the Producers. Wow.

Anyways, it’s a great show. Super hilarious.

“So I hear Percy and Annabeth are getting married?” asked Calypso one day during dress rehearsal, while we were taking our lunch break. Leo nodded.

“Yeah, the wedding’s in a little less than a year, in New Rome. You should totally come! I’m sure Percy would love to have you there.” He squeezed Calypso’s hand. She smiled.

“It would be so fun to go to a wedding! Are you all going?” She asked me, Jason, and Frank. We all nodded. Jason glanced at me, no doubt wondering how I was feeling about talking about Percy’s wedding. “Yay!” Calypso exclaimed. “It’ll be so fun!”

“You know it,” said Percy, coming to sit down with us. “You’re totally invited! I already told Annabeth to add you to the guest list.” He sat down between me and Calypso and leaned on her a bit. “Well, you’re as pretty as ever.” He chuckled. Leo narrowed his eyes.

“So,” said Jason, changing the subject. “Calypso, what’s your Hogwarts house?”

_That face._

_That face._

_That dangerous face._

Jason had fallen asleep on the couch during the cast party after having drank too much of Dakota’s kool-aid. I was sitting next to him, gazing at him while he slept. Wow, that sounded creepy. But still… _Those lips, that nose, those eyes._ Jason was beautiful, and I could feel myself falling in love with him as I watched him. _That face. That face. That marvelous face. I never should begin. Those cheeks. That neck. That chin, will surely do me in._ I heard a groan and jumped as Jason began to stir.

“Nico…?” He opened his eyes and looked up at me.

“H-hey.. How are you feeling?” I asked.

“Mmh.. Tired…” I chuckled.

“Want me to take you back to your cabin?” I asked. He nodded and I stood up to help him to his feet. “Hey,” I called to Leo. “We’re gonna head back. See you guys!” Leo gave us a thumbs up as we walked out the door.

We made it to Jason’s cabin and he went over to plop down on his bed. I chuckled at him before turning to leave.

“Nico?”

I turned around.

“What now?”

“You wanna stay?” I blinked.

“U-Um, sure, I guess…” I mean, I couldn’t just say no. Jason smiled and moved over on the bed so I would have room. I got into bed awkwardly and laid down. I blushed when I felt Jason sling an arm around me.

“‘Night, Nico,” he said, drowsily. I nodded.

“‘Night…” As I fell asleep, I thought of the overwhelming emotion I had recently been feeling for Jason, and I wondered, if one could measure love, how would they do it?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Calypso is back! Leo managed to rescue her from Ogygia, and she and Nico have now REUNITED. Yep, that's right, Nico has met Calypso before when he landed on her island a while ago, but he had to turn down her affections for obvious reasons.
> 
> Also, Percy flirted with Calypso a bit and no one's sure why, which is a bit worrying, seeing as he's getting married to Annabeth, like, next chapter.
> 
> And in further news, Nico is in love with Jason. I don't think anyone's surprised.


	15. Take Me Or Leave Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is the longest chapter yet!!  
> The musical RENT brings along both laughter and drama. Like, a LOT of drama.  
> SO MUCH PLOT HAPPENS IN THIS CHAPTER YOU GUYS  
> THERE IS A REASON THAT THE TITLE OF THE WHOLE FIC IS A SONG FROM THIS MUSICAL
> 
> AmbrosiaxDawn guessed the musical so here is a haiku
> 
> Thanks for reading this  
> I am sorry for any  
> Feels you may now have
> 
> :) Enjoy~!

I was so fucking hopeless.

So fucking hopeless, and stupid, and gods, I couldn’t even talk to Jason much anymore without tripping over my words and blushing like an idiot! My crush on him had developed to phenomenal heights, and it was now excruciatingly difficult to be around the blonde idiot. Still, that didn’t mean that I wasn’t going to audition for the musical.

Rent is a musical set in the 1990s in New York City. It centers around a few poor 20-somethings who live in apartments on Avenue A. There’s Mark, a guy trying to make a living off of making documentaries, his friend Roger, a failing musician, their friend Collins, who was actually sort of making it a bit in life, Collins’ love interest Angel, a super sweet crossdresser who had AIDS and also liked to drum, Roger’s love interest Mimi, who was also a stripper and an addict, Mark’s promiscuous and outgoing ex-girlfriend Maureen and her new girlfriend, strict lawyer Joanne, and Benny, who I’m pretty sure is their landlord. Benny’s an ass and I hate his guts, just putting that out there.

So yeah, spoiler alert though, Angel dies from AIDS. As much as I tried not to, I couldn’t help crying when I saw the movie. Angel was everyone’s favourite character, and he just had to be the one to die. He was so sweet… (Or she was so sweet? Honestly I’m not entirely sure which pronouns to use. Whatever. They were so sweet. There we go).

I was sure Rent was going to end up being a great musical. I just had no idea how much drama was going to come along with it.

For my audition, I sang Angel’s song, ‘Today 4 U,’ which was fun, because I brought along some drumsticks I had been practicing with in the hopes that I would land the role. I really liked Angel, and it seemed like the role would be fun to do. Well, I also didn’t know what other character would fit me, like, at all. So I auditioned for the role of Angel. And as it turned out, my efforts actually paid off!

RENT CAST LIST

Joanne - Reyna Ramirez-Arellano

Mimi - Piper McLean

Maureen - Annabeth Chase

Roger - Leo Valdez

Mark - Percy Jackson

Benny - Frank Zhang

Angel - Nico diAngelo

Collins - Jason Grace

Annabeth raised her eyebrows at the cast list.

“You know,” she said. “I always thought I was more of a Joanne than a Maureen.” Leo laughed.

“You? Nah, you’ll make a great Maureen.” He smiled at her. “Especially with Reyna as your Joanne. You two have good chemistry.” Behind them, I saw Percy narrow his eyes at this statement. Was he jealous? But he knew Annabeth would never love anybody but him. After all, they were getting married literally the day after the show!

“So, uh, Nico.” I jumped and turned around. Jason was standing there, smiling awkwardly at me. “I guess we’re playing a couple, huh?” My face turned scarlet at this. I hadn’t thought about that when I auditioned for the role of Angel. Shit, I was so stupid…

“I-I guess… Yeah, ‘spose we are…” I looked away, blushing madly. Jason chuckled, nervously.

“It’ll be fun, yeah?” I nodded, not looking at him. “Cool. So, uh. I’ll uh. I’ll see you at rehearsals.” With that, he walked off. I looked up to watch him go, trying desperately not to think about how we were going to have a kissing scene in the show.

Unfortunately, now I had to think about how we were going to have a kissing scene in the show.

Last rehearsal, Bacchus had told me, Jason, Annabeth, Reyna, Piper, and Leo that we would have to stay late next rehearsal to practice our respective kissing scenes. So naturally, I was physically shaking all over on my way to rehearsal.

“You nervous?” asked Reyna, who was walking with me. I bit my lip and nodded. I figured out a while ago that it was no use trying to hide my feelings from Reyna, because she always saw through me. Besides, she was really comforting to me a lot, almost like a big sister…

She sighed.

“Yeah, me too,” she said looking at me.

“You are?” I asked, looking up at her. She nodded.

“I’m kissing Annabeth Chase. Of course I’m nervous.” I chuckled at this.

“And I’m kissing Jason…” I sighed.

“You’ll be fine,” Reyna reassured me.

“I sure hope so.” I really hoped that I wouldn’t fuck up and/or pass out.

Apparently, we were supposed to go one pair at a time into a broom closet to do the kiss. Thankfully, Bacchus had enough sense to know that it would be awkward for us to kiss in front of everybody. The first people to go were Piper and Leo, and neither of them complained very much. When they went, I looked at Jason to see what his reaction would be. Surprisingly, he was way more calm about it than I thought he would be. I mean, that was his girlfriend in there, kissing one of his best friends! Piper and Leo came back out after a few minutes, both blushing. I knew neither of them liked each other like that, but they did still just kiss each other, so blushing was a pretty normal reaction.

“Annabeth and Reyna, you’re up next,” said Bacchus. “Annabeth, I hope this doesn’t jeopardize your future marriage.” Annabeth scoffed as she got up.

“Please,” she said. “Of all the things that jeopardize my future marriage, this is at the bottom of the list.” She took Reyna’s hand and went into the broom closet. I narrowed my eyes. That was strange. ‘Of all the things that jeopardize her future marriage’? Things like what? Were Percy and Annabeth having issues or something? That wasn’t good.

I bounced my leg nervously as I waited for Annabeth and Reyna to get out, because I knew that Jason and I would be next. I snuck a glance at the boy next to me. Well, he wasn’t really a boy anymore. He had a firm jaw and a bit of stubble (which I personally found pretty hot), and he was very tall and muscular. His glasses also added a nice, manly touch. Yes, Jason was now more of a man than a boy.

I jumped when Bacchus called Jason’s and my names. I hadn’t even realised that Reyna and Annabeth had finished. I got up shakily and shot a glance at Reyna. She smiled a bit and nodded, encouraging me. I nodded in thanks before heading into the broom closet with Jason. He looked around as he closed the door.

“Well, at least there’s some light in here. I feel like this might have been even more awkward if it was pitch black.” He chuckled. I shrugged. He looked at me. “Hey, Nico…” He reached up to put his hand lightly on my cheek. “We’ve done this before, so it won’t be too hard now, will it? It’ll be just like last time…” Just like last time? Did he mean the last time where my stomach was overflowing with butterflies and I could barely think because all I could focus on was Jason’s lips on mine and Jason’s smell and Jason’s touch? That last time? I took a shaky breath and looked up at him.

“W-Well? What are you waiting for?” I asked with a frown. Jason nodded and licked his lips a bit before slowly leaning down. My eyes closed as I leaned up to meet him halfway.

It turned out, Jason was right. Kissing him this time was easier than it was last time, probably because this time I actually had some experience. I reached up to cup his cheek with my hand, kissing him gently, almost lovingly. I shivered when I felt Jason’s hand come up to tangle in my hair, his other hand going down to rest at the small of my back. My heart felt like a butterfly in my chest, my brain like mush, and my legs like jelly. I put my hands on his shoulders and dared to deepen the kiss a bit, thinking that if this was all I’d ever get in the field of romance with Jason, I had better milk it for all it was worth. Neither of us dared to go any further, however, and soon Jason and I pulled apart. I looked at him, my face bright red and my heart beating faster than a cheetah running a marathon. Jason’s face looked to be a similar shade of vermillion to mine, which I was a bit relieved about. It would have been embarrassing if I was the only one between the two of us who was blushing like a goddamn virgin bride on her wedding night.

“So, uh-”

“Well, I-” We both spoke at the same time and laughed nervously.

“That was…” Jason began a sentence but obviously didn’t know how to finish it, as he just sort of stood there, scratching the back of his neck.

“We should leave.”

“Yeah..”

Jason and I actually ended up having a lot of fun in our roles as Angel and Collins. Well, I was having fun partially because I got to play a couple with a guy I was pretty much in love with, but that was beside the point.

“ _Live in my house, I’ll be your shelter. Just pay me back with one thousand kisses! Be my lover, I’ll cover you,_ ” I sang. Jason grinned and started to sing back.

“ _Open your door, I’ll be your tenant. Don’t got much baggage to lay at your feet, but sweet kisses I’ve got to spare! I’ll be there, I’ll cover you!_ ” We started to sing together.

“ _I think they meant it when they said you can’t buy love, now I know you can rent it. A new lease you are, my love. On life, be my life!_ ” It was a few weeks into rehearsals and Jason and I were practicing our song in front of the rest of the cast and crew. Despite already having the song and most of the choreography memorised, we hadn’t actually kissed at an actual rehearsal yet.

“ _I’ve longed to discover something as true as it seems!_ ” we sang.

“ _So with a thousand sweet kisses,_ ” sang Jason.

“ _When you’re cold and you’re lonely,_ ” I countered, dancing with Jason.

“ _With a thousand sweet kisses._ ”

“ _You’ve got one nickel only._ ”

“ _When you’re worn out and tired._ ”

“ _I’ll cover you._ ”

“ _When your heart has expired._ ” Now we sang together again.

“ _Oh lover, I’ll cover you!_ ” Jason spun me around. “ _Oh lover! I’ll cover you…_ ” He pulled me into his arms. As I looked up at Jason’s beautiful, wonderful face, a sudden urge came over me. I leaned up and kissed him, cupping his cheek in my hand. Jason was shocked but he kissed back, blushing at the amount of cheers erupting from our audience of cast and crew members. We pulled apart and I looked up at him, my face flushed.

“S-Sorry… I should have asked first instead of just doing it like that-”

“Hey, Nico..” Jason smiled at me. “It’s okay. It was nice… It felt right…” I blinked. What did he mean by, ‘it felt right’? Jason’s face reddened. “I-I mean for the scene. Yeah, it felt right for the scene.” He cleared his throat and I chuckled, nodding.

“Yeah, alright. Sure.”

Jason slept in my cabin the night after a particularly emotionally exhausting rehearsal in which my character’s death was gone over at least a dozen times. At this point, Leo has just stopped saying anything about it. What was the point, anyways? It wasn’t like anything Leo had to say was going to stop Jason from randomly crashing for the night in my bed.

This particular night, however, was really stressing me out. It was the night before the show, and I was really nervous about the fact that my dad was going to see me kissing another guy. I hadn’t told him about my sexuality yet, so I was really unsure of how he was going to react. Then again, it was just a show, so it shouldn’t have worried me too much, right? I sighed and nestled into Jason’s chest, thankful that he had chosen this night to come sleep in my bed. Jeez, I almost felt like a mistress, sleeping in a bed with a powerful man who had a beautiful girlfriend. Except, Jason and I weren’t having an affair, and I felt terribly guilty for kind of wishing that we were.

The show went extremely well, and my dad was very proud. He would have brought me flowers, he said, but every time he did, they died before he could get them to me. So instead this time, he brought me a little hellhound plushie. I named her BeeBee.

There wasn’t much time for a cast party, however, because everyone was either at Percy’s bachelor party, or Annabeth’s bachelorette party. I was not much looking forward to Percy’s bachelor party, but I went anyways, because I knew Percy would never forgive me if I didn’t (well maybe he would have forgiven me. I dunno. But that’s beside the point).

The bachelor party was held at a building in New Rome that was a cross between a bathhouse, a bar, and a strip club. The party had rented a room in the back for all of us to hang out in, with a pass to get any liquor or any stripper in there at any time.

It was a couple of hours into the party, and I was hanging out in the back, drink in hand, watching Leo get completely bamboozled over how high the redheaded stripper could get her leg on the pole. It was rather funny, especially seeing how drunk Leo was getting through all of it. Really, most people seemed to be getting drunk. Grover was probably the most smashed out of everybody, trotting around, eating through furniture, and bleating about all the nymphs he had been with (as if. Juniper was the only girlfriend he had ever had). Meanwhile, an also completely smashed Percy was practically hanging off of an also pretty drunk Jason. I wasn’t paying attention to what they were doing until I heard my name being mentioned.

“I-I mean..” I heard Percy’s voice. “Like, I kissed Nico that like, one time, but like that was it, y’know? It wasn’t even really a kiss, it was just like… I was just tryna’ prove a point, so like…” I looked at the two of them and raised my eyebrows.

“He’s totally a good kisser though. You missed out, bro.” Jason chuckled, his face flushed from alcohol.

“But, but, that’s not my point!” Percy exclaimed, getting frustrated. “I’m just sayin’, I’ve like, seriously always wanted to try makin’ out with a guy, but I’m totally getting married to a chick tomorrow! It’s not fair…” He pouted, crossing his arms. Jason patted him gingerly on the shoulder.

“There, there, Perce.” Jason hiccuped. Percy turned to look at him.

“Wait, wait, hold on. I just got the BEST idea. EVER,” he said. Jason looked at him with wide eyes.

“What is it?”

“We should like, totally make out, bro! I’ve seriously always had a thing for blondes.” Percy grinned. Jason blinked.

“I dunno… See, I have this friend who’s like, totally into you…” he said. Oh no he didn’t. I was furious. How could he just say that to Percy!? It was obviously me! “So like, would it be betrayin’ him if I kissed you?”

“Nonononono,” said Percy, putting a finger to Jason’s lips. “See, this is totally a one-time thing. I’m getting married tomorrow, remember?” Jason nodded slowly, understanding.

“Yeah, I guess that’s right…”

“Awesome…” Percy began kissing Jason’s neck. Shit, I really should not be watching this. But for some reason, I couldn’t tear my eyes away. These were the two hottest guys I knew, the two guys I had crushes on, about to go at it with each other. I was jealous of both of them, but at the same time I also found it pretty damn hot. I watched, open-mouthed, as Jason tilted his head a bit, reaching up to tangle his fingers in Percy’s hair. I swallowed down the rest of my drink nervously as Percy’s hands slipped up Jason’s shirt, his mouth sucking on the soft skin of his neck. Jeez, they hadn’t even started actually kissing yet and Jason already looked pretty turned on. Wait… Did this mean that Jason was into guys this way? Did I dare to hope? Oh look, now they were really kissing. Percy had since moved from Jason’s neck to his mouth and was now kissing him passionately and open-mouthed, while Jason’s fingers found themselves pulling at Percy’s hair. Fuck, I thought. Somebody should stop this before it ruins one or both of their relationships. Percy’s hands travelled down until they reached Jason’s ass and squeezed, eliciting a soft moan from the blonde, and fuck if that wasn’t the hottest noise I had ever heard in my life. I kept an eye on the two of them, partially to make sure they didn’t go too far, and partially for my own personal reasons, so I was half relieved and half disappointed when Percy pulled away because he had to go to the bathroom to throw up. It was at that point when I decided to go and get Jason and bring him home.

Jason woke up the next morning with a groan. I looked up from where I had been reading next to the bed.

“Morning, have a nice sleep?” I asked. Jason merely groaned again and rolled over. “Headache?” I asked. He mumbled in response, which I took to mean ‘yes’. “Well,” I said. “If you look at the bedside table, there’s some water for you.” Jason sat up and took the water, immediately drinking it. “How much do you remember from last night?” I asked. Jason shook his head.

“Not much,” he said. “Why? Did something happen?”

“Well…” I wasn’t entirely sure how to put this. “You, er, kind of made out with Percy last night.” Jason spit some of his water out.

“I what?!”

“You made out with Percy. Like, with tongue and butt-touching and everything.” I raised an eyebrow at the completely shocked look on Jason’s face.

“I… But… He’s getting married today, though?” I nodded.

“Yep, he is.”

“And I made out with him.”

“Yes.”

“.... Oh Nico, I’m so sorry!” I was confused at this.

“What?”

“You like him, and I just went and did that with him in front of you! That was so awful of me, I’m so sorry, I’m an awful friend!” Jason put his head in his hands as he beat himself up for his made-up offense.

“Jason, hey. Wait. I’m not angry.” He looked up.

“You’re not?”

“No, I uh… I didn’t mind it, actually.” I blushed.

“Oh… Still… I shouldn’t have done that.”

“You were drunk, Jason. Percy was too. He probably doesn’t remember a thing about it, either.”

Unfortunately, Percy apparently had a better memory than previously anticipated.

Percy had been waiting for the groomsmen to arrive to the wedding when we showed up. Right away when he saw Jason, he pulled him aside. I stayed close to the two of them so I could listen to what they were saying.

“Hey, uh, Jason. Do you remember what we did last night?” He bit his lip, nervously.

“No, not really, but uh, Nico filled me in on the details…” Jason blushed and Percy looked away, bashfully.

“Well, uh, I-I’m sorry about that… I mean, I’m getting married today, and-”

“Percy, it doesn’t matter. We were drunk. It didn’t mean anything.” Jason smiled and patted Percy on the back. Percy nodded.

“Jason…”

“Yeah?”

“What if this isn’t the right thing to do?”

“What?”

“Getting married to Annabeth, I mean…” Jason blinked at this.

“... Why wouldn’t it be?” he asked.

“Well..” Percy sighed. “I feel like, only recently have I really been discovering myself, and who I am, like romantically and sexually, and I can’t do that anymore once I’m married. I’m just worried I won’t ever be able to truly understand myself that way…” Jason bit his lip.

“I don’t know, Percy… Well, whatever you decide, I’ll always be your bro, okay?” Jason smiled. Percy smiled back.

“Yeah, thanks.”

Well, Percy and Annabeth went through with the wedding, but there were problems as soon as we got to the reception. I had noticed Annabeth acting strangely after being told something by Leo earlier, so I was keeping an eye on her at the reception. She wasn’t around Percy almost at all, which was extremely strange, seeing as it was her wedding. I saw her talking to some other people who had been at the bachelor party the previous night, and they only seemed to make Annabeth even more agitated. What happened next seemed to just set off a storm.

Percy entered the dance floor, without Annabeth, and asked Leo if he could borrow Calypso for a dance. Once Annabeth saw what was going on, she narrowed her eyes and immediately stalked over to the dance floor.

“Percy, what are you doing?” she asked, putting her hands on her hips. Percy turned to look at her, letting go of Calypso.

“I’m just dancing, sweetie.” He smiled.

“Dancing.” Annabeth nodded. “With another girl. On our wedding day.” Percy bit his lip.

“Well, I mean-”

“Percy what the Hell has been with you lately? You’ve been flirting with other people left and right!”

“What? That’s not true!”

“You’re right. You’ve been doing more than just flirting with Calypso.”

“Wh-what do you mean..?”

“A little birdie explained to me how you were full-on making out with Jason last night.” She narrowed her eyes. Percy blinked several times, trying to come up with a response. “And now I’m being told that people heard you talking about how you kissed Nico, too? When the fuck did that happen?!”

“Annabeth, hey, baby, it’s not my fault.”

“Tell me how it’s not your fault.” Annabeth looked downright furious. Percy shrugged.

“ _Every single day, I walk down the street. I hear people say baby so sweet. Ever since puberty, everybody stares at me. Boys, girls, I can’t help it, baby. So be kind, and don’t lose your mind. Just remember that I’m your baby. Take me for what I am, who I was meant to be. And if you give a damn, take me baby, or leave me._ ” He smiled nervously, but Annabeth wasn’t having it. “Oh come on, Annabeth!” said Percy. “You’re so uptight about everything!”

“Why were you kissing Jason and Nico, Percy?!” Annabeth just wanted to know why. What was Percy keeping from her? Percy was silent for a while.

“Annabeth, I…” He bit his lip. “I-I’m bisexual…” Annabeth just looked at him.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I-I dunno, like you’re really uptight and stuff and I didn’t know-”

“Oh I’m uptight?” Now she was angry again. “Well I kind of have to be, to make up for all of your idiocy!” She crossed her arms. “ _I look before I leap. I love margins and discipline. I make lists in my sleep baby, what’s my sin? Never quit, I follow through. I hate mess, but I love you. What to do with my impromptu, baby? So be wise, ‘cause this girl satisfies. You’ve got a prize who don’t compromise. You’re one lucky baby! Take me for what I am!_ ”

“A control freak,” Percy said, rolling his eyes.

“ _Who I was meant to be!_ ”

“A snob, yet over-attentive.”

“ _And if you give a damn-_ ”

“A lovable, droll geek.”

“ _Take me baby, or leave me!_ ”

“And anal retentive!”

“Why the fuck couldn’t you just tell me, Percy? You never tell me anything!”

“You want to know everything!” Percy countered, angrily.

“You know what?” Annabeth glared at him. “I do want to know everything. But not about you. Not anymore. Guess I’m leaving.” She began walking away. “I’m gone,” she said as she walked out the door.

Percy stood there, fuming. It looked to me like he was about to angry-cry. Suddenly, he stormed over to me.

“Nico, shadow travel me somewhere. Far away from here. As far as you can go.” He looked me in the eyes. I swallowed nervously and nodded. I grabbed Percy’s arm, and the two of us disappeared into the shadows.

We landed in front of the Big House at Camp Half-Blood, all the way across the country from New Rome. The last thing I saw was Percy’s face in front of me before I blacked out.

I woke up in a hospital bed. I was in the infirmary of Camp Half-Blood. Shit… I really shouldn’t have shadow-travelled. I was alone in the room, but I could hear voices from a little ways away. It sounded like one of the Apollo kids. Not Will, though, since he was at the wedding.

“A disease..” the voice was saying. “Shadow infection. Only children of Hades and Pluto can get it.”

 _Great_ , I thought.

“Hey Dad,” I said. “I’m infected by your genetics. Thanks for the disease!” I was delirious and sarcastic. The doctor came into the room and saw that I was awake.

“I’m sorry, I’m going to have to put you under again, Nico.” I groaned as they gave me some sort of injection. As I slipped back into darkness, all I could think was, _I can’t feel nothing at all._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HOLY SHIT so.  
> Nico is in love with Jason  
> Jason and Nico got cast as a couple (Angel and Collins)  
> Jason and Nico kissed again  
> Percy and Jason make out at Percy's bachelor party  
> Annabeth finds out  
> She also finds out about how Percy kissed Nico that one time in Legally Blonde  
> They have a very public breakup at their own wedding reception  
> Nico and Percy shadow travel to Camp Half-Blood  
> Nico passes the fuck out  
> Nico has a "shadow infection"


	16. Infected

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What happens when a now-single, newly-outed bisexual Percy Jackson begins hanging around Nico a lot? Also, what's with this shadow infection that Nico's got? And what will Jason think of all of it?  
> They're doing Repo!The Genetic Opera, and Nico is infected.
> 
> Shiro guessed the musical so they get a haiku!
> 
> Sorry I have not  
> updated in a while.  
> I have been busy.
> 
> Also, for this next hint, I really couldn't think of anything good so I just bullshat it. sorry lol
> 
> if you don't know Repo and don't care to read the chapter (even though a summary of repo is in there and the musical isn't even a huge part of this chapter), just read the notes at the end thanks!!! :)
> 
> EDIT: HEY GUYS. I'M PROBABLY NOT GONNA UPDATE UNTIL YOU GUYS GUESS THE NEXT CHAPTER, SO GET ON IT

I had been in and out of the hospital ever since I collapsed after RENT. As soon as the others at the wedding heard that I was sick, they all came back to Camp Half-Blood to visit me. Percy visited very often, almost more often than Jason. I think he thought it was his fault that I was sick in the first place, since the reason I shadow-travelled all that way in the first place was in order to get him to Camp Half-Blood. Really, it was my own damn fault. My own damn fault because despite how much I think I get over him, I never really do, and I’ll still do anything he asks, even if it includes shadow-travelling across the country.

Percy was sitting by my bed right now, telling me all about some movie he watched recently about some woman and her baby and this guy who was the babysitter and was really hot and oh yeah he was also played by John Travolta.

“Say, Nico.” I looked up at him. “You seem paler than usual. Want me to get you some ambrosia? Some water?” I blushed. Percy could be so goddamn sweet..

“Water would be nice,” I said with a nod. He smiled and went to get me a glass of water. He came back over and gave it to me before sitting down again.

“You know, this is kinda nice, hanging out with you like this. We never do this… Well, I mean, it’d be better if you weren’t sick, but you know what I mean..” He chuckled. “I… I really like being with you Nico…” I was shocked when he reached over to hold my hand. What the Hell was Percy doing?

The door opened and I looked up as Jason walked in. He looked between me and Percy, and then at our joined hands, and his expression seemed to darken.

“I…” He cleared his throat. “I see I’m interrupting. I-I’ll go.” I took my hand away from Percy’s and tried to say something but Jason shut the door before I could. For some reason, I felt guilty; I felt like I had to explain to Jason why I was holding hands with Percy.

“Shit,” said Percy, looking at me. “Are you and Jason… You’re not… Are you guys together?” I gave Percy an incredulous look at this question, without realising that for probably the first time in his life, Percy had actually sensed the mood.

Jason began avoiding me after the incident with Percy. I mean, come on, it wasn’t like we had kissed again or anything; we had just been holding hands!

Even when Percy and I went to audition for the musical, Jason was still avoiding me. And, as I found out from Percy later, he had been avoiding Percy as well. What was his problem?

“Shit,” said Percy as he was looking over the Wikipedia article for the musical. “This one looks super gory. Like, holy shit.”

“Let me see,” I said. Percy handed me the laptop. “Wow…” I raised an eyebrow as I looked at the pictures. “We’re seriously doing this?”

“I guess we’ll need a lot of fake blood.” Percy chuckled. I nodded.

And now for the summary:

Repo! The Genetic Opera is a really gory musical set in a dystopian America. There’s this really powerful family called the Largos that run a company called GeneCo, which provides surgeries to people. The thing is, if people can’t keep up on their payments for their surgeries, a repo man is sent to come take whatever body part they had a surgery for back. So basically, they kill them. The main character is a girl named Shilo Wallace, who has a blood disease. There’s also her dad, Nathan, who is secretly a repo man, a singer named Blind Mag who is basically a slave to GeneCo, and the Largo family, which includes the dad, Rotti, the brothers, Luigi and Pavi, and the sister, Amber Sweet. There’s also this guy called the Grave Robber. Grave robbers make this thing called zydrate, which numbs you during surgery, and sell it on the black market. Overall, really dark, but pretty damn good.

Auditions for this show had been super awkward. Jason was avoiding me and Percy, and Percy and Annabeth were avoiding each other, and yet we all had to audition for the same show. Needless to say, it wasn’t all that pleasant. Thankfully, however, the casting director didn’t put any of us in as characters that interacted with each other all that much.

REPO! THE GENETIC OPERA CAST LIST

Grave-Robber - Jason Grace

Amber Sweet - Piper McLean

Shilo Wallace - Hazel Levesque

Nathan Wallace - Percy Jackson

Rotti Largo - Frank Zhang

Luigi Largo - Nico diAngelo

Blind Mag - Annabeth Chase

Pavi Largo - Leo Valdez

I was to be playing Luigi Largo, the eldest Largo brother. His main characteristic was that he was an angry asshole. This was going to be fun.

“Fuck, this is so complicated,” Percy complained to me one day while we were hanging out on the beach one day. Seeing as one of my only other good friends was avoiding me, and one of Percy’s only other good friends was avoiding him, Percy and I had been spending quite a lot of time together. This might also have been because I was the only other person Percy knew who wasn’t straight, and I guess he just wanted someone to relate to. And I get that. Ever since Percy came out at the wedding, there had been rumours circling about him and a lot of different guys. And ever since the two of us began hanging out, most of the rumours now involved me. And the thing was, Percy didn’t deny any of them, which was strange.

“What’s complicated?” I asked.

“This stupid divorce stuff. I mean, come on! We were married for like, a few hours and that’s it.” He crossed his arms. I patted him on the back.

“Hey, you’ll get through it. You just gotta persevere, that’s all.” Percy nodded.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.” He sighed and leaned against me, causing me to blush. “I have to rehearse the scene with me and Annabeth tomorrow…” He pouted.

“You’ll be fine. Just stay in character and try not to lose your temper at her. And Hazel will be there and she can act as a mediator in case anything goes wrong, okay?”

“Okay…” He nuzzled into my chest. Since when was he so goddamn cuddly? Nobody had cuddled with me since, well, since Jason and I used to sleep in each others’ beds sometimes. I sort of missed that… Okay, I really missed that. But Jason never came into my cabin anymore.

Percy sat up. “Nico, can I try something?” he asked. I raised an eyebrow, looking at him.

“Sure?” I shrugged. Percy nodded. Before I could stop him or say anything, he had leaned in and kissed me. I blinked several times, completely shocked at what Percy was doing, but soon closed my eyes and kissed back. This was what I had always wanted, wasn’t it?

Percy ran his fingers through my hair as he kissed me. My heart fluttered. I had to admit, Percy was a pretty good kisser. We drew apart after a little while. I looked at him, blushing madly.

“P-Percy, I..”

“Did you like that?”

“Yeah…” I laughed a bit and Percy grinned.

“Me too…” He stroked my cheek. I couldn’t believe that that had actually just happened. Percy Jackson, the boy whom I had loved since I was ten years old, had just kissed me for the second time. Holy shit.

I yelped as I felt a sharp pain in my chest. “Nico?” asked Percy, worried. “Nico, what’s wrong? What is it?”

“I-I think it’s the infection.”

“Shit, I gotta get you to the infirmary.” He picked me up bridal style and began carrying me, and that’s all I remember.

I woke up in the infirmary a little while later, looking up into the face of Will Solace. I jumped, startled, and he jumped away.

“S-sorry if I scared you. I was just.. yeah. I dunno.” He chuckled. I raised an eyebrow at him.

“What happened?” I asked.

“Well, something must have triggered a reaction with the shadow infection. Do you have any idea what it could have been?” I shook my head. “I’ve researched this. I even got my dad to go visit your dad to ask him about it. Reactions can be triggered usually by shadow travelling, summoning the undead, and other child of Hades stuff, but it can also be triggered by things like playing with fate or doing something that fate doesn’t want to happen. Like, something that’s not right. That sort of thing usually triggers a reaction in the form of a shooting pain around the heart area. What’s the last thing you remember doing before it started hurting again?” The last thing I remembered doing was kissing Percy… I felt a sinking feeling in my chest. This was the fates telling me that it wasn’t right. I think I had already known that somewhere in my brain. I was still pretty sure Percy belonged with Annabeth, and I was also still very much in love with Jason. “Nico?” I looked up at Will. “What’s the last thing you remember doing?” I turned scarlet.

“N-Nothing. Nothing important,” I spluttered, looking away. Will raised an eyebrow.

“Ah, so I see it’s personal. Well, whatever it was, it’s probably not a good idea to do it again.” I frowned at Will. Who was he to say what I could and couldn’t do? I could damn well do whatever I wanted. In fact, I really wanted to kiss Percy again. To Hell with the fates.

“Hey Will, do you know where Percy is?”

“He’s probably having dinner.”

“Could you tell him that I want to see him as soon as he gets the chance, please?” I looked innocently up at Will. He shrugged and nodded.

“Sure, I don’t see why not. I’ll tell him for you.” He smiled at me and I nodded.

Percy came into the room about an hour later.

“Hey, Nico, sorry I took so long. Are you okay? I wanted to stay with you, but Chiron ordered me to go to dinner.” He came over to stand beside my bed.

“I’m fine, Percy. Come here.” I sat up and reached for his collar to pull him down into another kiss. He seemed a bit taken aback, but he kissed back eagerly, sitting down on the bed so he could kiss me more easily. I fought the shadows as they tried stop me from kissing Percy. I fought the dull pain in my chest, choosing to focus only on the way Percy’s lips felt against my own. I wrapped my arms around him, pulling him further on top of me. Percy stopped kissing me and instead moved his mouth to the top of my neck, kissing and biting gently. I gasped a bit. No one in memory had done this sort of thing to me. I let out a small, soft noise as Percy left hickies on my neck. Those were going to be difficult to hide, especially against my pale skin. I ran my hands down Percy’s back as he sucked on my neck. Suddenly, another wave of shadow reaction surged through me and I yelled. Percy pulled back.

“Nico, what happened?” I winced at the pain.

“S-Sorry.. The infection… I keep getting reactions.” I frowned. Percy sighed and sat back up, reaching for my hand.

“Man, that sucks.” He squeezed my hand and I smiled a bit.

“Yeah…”

There was a knock at the door. “Come in,” I called, taking my hand away from Percy’s. Will entered the room.

“Hey, sorry, Percy. Nico’s gotta sleep now, so..” He smiled apologetically. Percy stood up.

“Right, I’ll be out in a second.” Will nodded and left the room. Percy looked at me and leaned down to kiss me softly. “I’ll come visit you again tomorrow.” I nodded. He smiled before leaving the room. I fell back onto my bed with a sigh. Why weren’t the fates letting me kiss Percy? What was with this stupid disease?

“ _I’m… infected… I’m infected, by your genetics._ ” I sat up, frowning. “ _I’m infected, by your genetics. I’m infected, by your genetics. And I don’t think that I can be fixed, no I don’t think that I can be fixed! Tell me why, oh why, are my genetics such a bitch?_ ” I glared at the ceiling. “ _How much of it’s genetics? How much of it is fate? How much of it depends on the choices that we make? Is heredity the culprit? Can I stop it, or am I a slave?_ ” I looked out the window on the opposite side of the room. “ _I… want to go… outside… outside… I… want to go… outside… outside…_ ” I sighed and laid down on my bed, trying to go to sleep.

I was thankful for having a small role in the show, because it meant that I didn’t have to overexert myself, which might have been dangerous with my condition. It was really cool, because this musical was a rock musical, and I had never, ever heard Hazel sing rock before. It was very entertaining, and she was surprisingly very good. Not as good as Jason, however. He was absolutely amazing as the Grave Robber, and he and Piper had such good chemistry during the song Zydrate Anatomy. Jason also somehow managed to make the Grave Robber costume look very attractive. I really wished he would talk to me again… I needed someone to talk to about Percy. Then again, I supposed I could always talk to Reyna. Somehow, I didn’t think Jason would take the news of Percy and I starting a non-official relationship very well. Yeah, I decided I would just tell Reyna. And maybe Hazel.

There was no cast party after this show. Everyone just seemed to be in too bad of a mood. I had been released from the infirmary by the end of the show, so I just went back to my cabin. I was surprised to find Jason there, waiting for me.

“Jason?” I blinked as I looked at him sitting on my bed.

“H-Hey…” He bit his lip, looking away.

“You never come into my cabin anymore… Are you here for the night?”

“That depends.” I narrowed my eyes.

“Depends on what?” I asked.

“Are you and Percy together now?” I blinked. I didn’t even have an answer to that question. “You can tell me, Nico…”

“I…” I sighed. “I don’t know…” I sat down on the bed, and Jason stood up, frowning.

“Have you kissed him?” he asked.

“I…” Jason looked at me and I nodded, shakily. Jason huffed, and I glared up at him. “What even is your problem? You’re supposed to be my friend. My best friend…” I looked away. I had never told Jason that he was my best friend before, even though I was sure that he knew. His face softened and he looked at me.

“Nico… I’m sorry. You’re right.” He sat back down next to me. “I guess… I don’t know. I guess I was just upset that you were spending more time with Percy than with me… I know it’s petty and stupid…” He looked at me. “I miss you, Nico.”

“I miss you too…” I smiled a bit at him. “Wanna sleep here tonight?” Jason nodded.

“Would Percy mind?” he asked.

“Percy and I aren’t even really together. I mean, we did kiss… a few times…” I blushed. “But nothing’s official, so…” I shrugged. Jason chuckled a bit.

“Alright.” I got into bed and Jason did so with me. “We have a free day tomorrow,” he said. “Wanna watch a movie or something?”

“Sure, any ideas?” I asked.

“Well there is this old 70s movies I’ve always wanted to see.”

“The 70s aren’t that old. I was born in the late 20s, remember?”

“Yeah, yeah, Captain America. Anyways, there’s this 70s movie I wanna see. Apparently there’s this really weird cult film that stars Tim Curry.”

“Alright, let’s watch it.”

“I’m gonna take you out to watch it, though. There’s a showing of it in the city.” I smiled.

“You’re taking me to the city?”

“Sure.” Jason smiled back. “Anything for my best friend.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IMPORTANT EVENTS IN ORDER:  
> Nico is infected with a shadow disease  
> Percy makes some moves on Nico  
> Jason sees Nico and Percy holding hands and gets upset- starts avoiding the both of them  
> Percy kisses Nico  
> Nico's infection acts up again while he's kissing Percy  
> Will informs Nico that one of the things that causes a shadow reaction is doing something that the fates don't like- aka, something that's not meant to happen  
> Nico kisses Percy again and gets another shadow reaction - conclusion: the fates don't want him with Percy?  
> Jason and Nico make up at the end


	17. Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They're doing the Rocky Horror Picture Show, and everything seems to be going well until Piper, one of the leads, gets sick! How is Jason going to rehearse their song now?  
> WARNING: Lots of mentions of sex in this chapter.
> 
> Shiro gets a haiku for guessing the musical!
> 
> We are almost there  
> Only 3 more chapters left  
> Ready to finish!
> 
> See notes at the bottom for important stuff  
> Also don't forget to guess the next musical!

A little while ago, Jason and I went with some friends to the city to see this thing called the Rocky Horror Picture show. There really aren’t many ways to explain it. There’s this couple named Brad and Janet, and their car breaks down by this big old castle, so they go inside. They meet Riffraff, the butler, and Magenta, the maid, and they’re both super weird. Then they meet Frank’n’furter, who is the master of the house (and is also a transvestite. He sings a whole song about it. He’s also an alien, interestingly enough). He creates this really hot man called Rocky, and at some point this guy on a motorcycle named Eddie shows up and he dies, and then this doctor guy called Dr. Everett Scott shows up and meanwhile there’s this criminologist who’s got no neck who’s narrating the whole thing and there’s also this girl called Columbia who likes Frank’n’Furter (I think?), and she eventually dies, and then eventually everyone dresses like Frank’n’Furter (aka, corset+fishnets+hooker boots). It was quite honestly the most confusing movie I had ever seen. And, of course, as soon as we got back to camp, Leo went running over to Chiron and Mr. D to try and get them to approve the Rocky Horror Picture show for the next musical.

And, of course, it worked.

So, I sang the song Dammit, Janet for my audition, which is the song that Brad sings. It was the least inappropriate and/or embarrassing song they were offering. I would have sung Hot Patootie- Bless My Soul, but I really wasn’t great at singing it. Percy and Jason auditioned with me. I was really glad that Jason and I were friends again, even though he still refused to talk to Percy for whatever reason. Speaking of Percy, I still hadn’t given up on being with him, even with my stupid shadow infection. Even still, there was nothing official between us. I guess it was probably a mixture of the fact that Percy had still only recently broken up with Annabeth, and the fact that a part of me knew that he wasn’t the right person for me (and I still loved Jason).

Even though the musical itself was super weird, the cast list was pretty awesome.

ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW CAST LIST

Dr. Frank-N-Furter - Percy Jackson

Janet Weiss - Piper McLean

Brad Majors - Nico diAngelo

Riff Raff - Frank Zhang

Magenta - Hazel Levesque

Columbia - Annabeth Chase

Dr. Everett V. Scott - Grover Underwood

Rocky Horror - Jason Grace

Eddie - Leo Valdez

The Criminologist - Dakota

Piper and I were paired together (again). Percy got to play a transvestite, and Jason got to play a role in which his only costume would be gold short-shorts (I was definitely excited now). Meanwhile, Hazel and Frank got to play Riff Raff and Magenta, and I knew they would love it. Leo was Eddie, which meant he got to ride a motorcycle, Annabeth was Columbia, so she got to wear a sparkly gold top hat, and all in all, this show was going to be pretty great.

Percy and I had a lot of fun in our roles. There was one scene where Frank’n’Furter went into Brad’s room to seduce him and stuff (it works), so Percy and I, of course, laughed the whole time we were rehearsing. We eventually decided to try and rehearse it a bit on our own time, because we needed to learn how not to laugh so much. So, one day, Percy invited me to his cabin to rehearse the scene. However, he failed to mention that by “rehearse,” he actually meant make out. Obviously, I didn’t mind. I liked being with Percy, no matter how much I knew that it wasn’t right and it wasn’t supposed to be. As we kissed, I could feel the shadow infection getting agitated. I ran my hands down Percy’s back, trying to focus on the warmth of his body rather than the coldness of my heart. Percy ran his hands up my shirt and I shivered. I liked the direction that this was going, even though I knew that I wasn’t yet ready to go too far. After a while, I knew I wasn’t going to be able to keep the shadow infection at bay much longer if we kept this up.

“Mm,” I hummed, running my fingers through Percy’s hair. “We should probably get rehearsing…” Percy chuckled a bit.

“Yeah, we probably should.” He pecked me on the lips one more time before sitting up. “Okay, let’s do it!” I smiled. I really wished I could just be with Percy without having to worry about Jason or the stupid infection, but I supposed I’d rather just take what I could get.

A few weeks into rehearsals, Piper came down with a cough, which escalated into a cold, which escalated into a flu. Because of this flu, she was now unable to be at rehearsals. Thankfully, she and I had already gotten most of Dammit, Janet down, so we didn’t have much to worry about there. In fact, Piper managed to get most of her songs done before she got sick, except for one. Piper and Jason still hadn’t gotten the time to rehearse much of the song Touch-a, Touch-a Touch Me. In this song, Janet finds Rocky, and she’s like, craving sex, I guess? And I suppose she’s tired of Brad (and I mean, Rocky is super hot, so I don’t blame her). So she seduces Rocky and gets him to touch her and stuff (only above the waist, though, don’t worry). This scene involved a lot of blocking, which, with Piper’s illness, unfortunately didn’t get to be rehearsed, like, at all. So, a couple of weeks before the show, Jason was panicking.

“Nico, I don’t know what to do! I don’t know most of the song, and I can’t do it without Piper, or at least someone to help block it with me!”

“Jason, calm down,” I said, raising an eyebrow at the blonde in front of me.

“But, but, what should I do?” He paced back and forth, agitated.

“Do you want me to rehearse it with you?” I asked, nonchalantly. Jason stopped and looked at me, his face tinted red.

“A-Are you sure?”

“Yeah, why not?”

“W-Well, it’s a bit, uh…”

“Come here.” I patted the space across from me on my bed. “I know the lyrics. You know the blocking. And I watched it that one time you and Piper rehearsed it, so I can do some blocking, too.” Jason swallowed nervously and sat on the bed across from me.

“Uh.” He cleared his throat, awkwardly. “You’ve gotta be a little closer…” My cheeks tinged red and I moved closer to him.

“Like this?” Jason nodded. “O-Okay, so…”

“The blocking is generally the same for both parts, we just have to do the last verse and the last chorus.” I nodded.

“Alright, I’ll start.” I bit my lip before singing. “ _Then if anything grows while you pose, I’ll oil you up and rub you down._ ” I blushed as Jason moved my hands across his chest. I had forgotten how awkward the blocking must have been. “ _And that’s just one small fraction of the main attraction. You need a friendly hand, and I need action._ ” I blushed even harder when Jason’s hands now went to my chest, exactly where my boobs would be if I had any. “ _Touch-a, touch-a, touch-a, touch me. I wanna be dirty._ ” Jason pulled me even closer to him. I didn’t remember this being part of the blocking. “ _Thrill me, chill me, fulfill me, creature of the night!_ ”

“Creature of the night,” said Jason in-character, leaning closer to me.

“ _Creature of the night,_ ” I sang. Jason was so close…

“Creature of the night.” Our lips were almost touching.

“ _Creature of the night._ ” My heart was pounding.

“Creature… of the night…” Jason whispered. He looked into my eyes for another second before closing the distance between us. When he kissed me, it felt amazing. He pushed me gently onto my back and got on top of me, kissing me passionately. I wrapped my arms around him, running my fingers through his soft, blonde hair. He bit down gently on my bottom lip and I opened my mouth for him, allowing his tongue to enter and rub against my own. He slipped one hand up my shirt while reaching the other down to cup my ass. I’d be lying if I didn’t let out a small, embarrassing moan. I grabbed his ass too to retaliate, and he chuckled. He kissed all over my face before going down to my neck and collar area. He attached his mouth to the soft skin and sucked, eliciting more moans from me. Gods, it felt so good to be with him. I had wanted this for so long, and it felt so right… He bit down gently and I gasped, blushing hard. I wanted to keep doing this. I wanted to go farther with Jason than I was ever willing to go with Percy. Percy… Shit. Shit, what were we doing?

“J-Jason-” I moaned again as he massaged my ass. “Jason, wait. Jason..” He leaned up to kiss me again, and gods, I didn’t want it to end, but I had to end it, or I’d end up feeling terribly guilty. “Jason, stop..”

“What?” he mumbled, kissing my cheeks.

“Jason, what are we doing?..” He stopped now, and looked at me. I stared up at him, watching as what we just did fully sank into Jason’s mind.

“Shit…” He sat up. “Fuck, Piper…” He put his head in his hands. “I just cheated on Piper, fuck…” I sat up as well, my heart pounding. I didn’t technically cheat on Percy, seeing as we weren’t in an exclusive relationship, but I still felt awful about it. “Nico, I…” I looked up at Jason, who was avoiding my gaze. “I have to go. I’m sorry.” He left the cabin without another word, leaving me speechless, breathless, and hopeless.

Jason and I began avoiding each other again. Percy didn’t notice. He barely ever noticed anything. Leo, on the other hand, was a different story. He walked up to me one day after rehearsal to talk to me.

“Hey, did you and Jason have a fight or something?” he whispered. “What happened? You were best friends two days ago.”

“Not… Not exactly,” I said, blushing. Leo frowned.

“Look, I know I joke a lot, but I’m your friend. Do you… wanna talk about it?” I looked at him. I knew he was genuine about this. I sighed.

“Okay,” I whispered, leaning in close to him. “You… You know how a while ago you kept joking about how Jason and I seemed like a couple?” He nodded. “W-Well…” I took a breath. “Last night, we kinda, well… Jason sorta cheated on Piper with me, and now we both feel guilty about it, because I’m also kind of with Percy, so…” I said this all quickly, as it was all very embarrassing, but Leo seemed to get it.

“Jeez… I guess you haven’t told Piper or Percy?” he asked. I shook my head.

“But yeah, that’s why we’re avoiding each other…” I looked at the ground. Leo patted me on the back.

“I think… If you truly love Jason more than you love Percy, you should go for Jason. It just wouldn’t be fair otherwise. But that’s just my opinion.” He shrugged. I smiled a bit as thanks.

“Leo!” Leo turned around to see Calypso calling him over. “Looks like I gotta go.” He smiled at me. “So long!”

“Farewell.” I waved a hand as he walked over to Calypso, a million thoughts running through my head. I looked at the ground and saw a pretty white flower growing out of the ground. I picked it up and smiled. Edelweiss, one of my favorites. I sighed as I walked back to my cabin with the flower, knowing it was probably going to die on the way there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nico and Percy are still unofficially together, but when Piper gets sick and Jason has to rehearse a song with Nico instead, it gets out of hand and they end up making out! So Jason cheated on Piper and Nico sort of cheated on Percy, and now they're both avoiding each other because they feel super duper guilty about it.


	18. Edelweiss

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They do the Sound of Music, and Percy and Annabeth are supposed to play love interests (which they do not like at all). Nico is feeling super guilty about what he did with Jason last chapter, so he and Jason are avoiding each other! Also, Nico sets out to find a cure for his shadow sickness that isn't just "giving in to what the fates desire."
> 
> This haiku goes to pads!
> 
> We are so darn close  
> I'm excited for the end!  
> Are you excited?
> 
> (like seriously we've only got two chapters left :D)  
> Don't forget to guess the next musical!  
> <3
> 
> UPDATE:  
> Don't worry, I am still writing this! A lot of stuff has been happening lately that has a: made me very busy and b: made me very unmotivated. But I'm working on the next chapter, so don't think I've forgotten about this! It's gonna happen, don't worry.   
> <3 -Michael W

“I don’t want to say that.” I was sitting in a seat, watching as the director tried to reason with Percy.

“Come on, my boy. It’s for the show.”

“But I don’t want to say it.” Percy frowned.

“It’s in character! We all know it isn’t the real you! Just say it.” The director pleaded with Percy, who sighed.

“Fine. H-Hl Hlr…” he muttered. The director frowned.

“You have to actually say it. Not just mutter it under your breath.” Percy glared at the director.

“Hail Hitler,” he spat, very reluctantly. I chuckled at how much Percy hated having to say that. “Can I go now?” Percy asked. The director nodded.

“Yes, yes. Don’t worry. As Rolf, you’ll only have to say it once or twice.” Percy sighed in relief before turning to me.

“You don’t have more rehearsal, do you?” he asked me. I nodded.

“Yeah, actually. They want to rehearse the music festival scene with the Von Trapp family.”

“Alright. See you later!” He leaned down to peck me softly on the lips. I blushed and smiled a bit.

“See you, Percy.” I sighed as he left. He was so sweet, and I felt so guilty for what I had done with Jason… I couldn’t worry about that now, though. I had a rehearsal to get to.

The Sound of Music was a musical set in the late 1930s in Austria about this girl named Maria who was a nun, but she always got into trouble, so the reverend mother sent her to be the governess of the seven children of Captain Von Trapp. While the Captain is away, Maria teaches the children how to have fun and how to sing, and when the Captain gets back, Maria falls in love with him. However, he is supposed to marry this baroness lady. At some point, the Captain and the baroness call off the engagement and the Captain gets married to Maria. But then the Captain gets a summons to become a general in the Nazi navy, and he really doesn’t want to be a Nazi. So he takes his whole family to try and flee Austria.

SOUND OF MUSIC CAST LIST

Maria - Reyna Ramirez-Arellano

Captain Von Trapp - Jason Grace

Liesl - Annabeth Chase

Louisa - Clarisse La Rue

Brigitta - Thalia Grace

Friedrich - Leo Valdez

Kurt - Nico di Angelo

Marta - Piper McLean

Gretl - Hazel Levesque

Rolf - Percy Jackson

 

I was Kurt, the youngest of the two Von Trapp boys. Percy was Rolf, a delivery boy who is the love interest of Liesl, the eldest Von Trapp daughter. He was less than happy about this role, not only because Rolf eventually became a Nazi, but also because he had to sing a love duet with and kiss Annabeth. When the cast list went up, he, being a melodramatic (yet adorable) idiot, came running into my cabin apologising to me for getting the role. This only really served to further my feelings of guilt, because I had gone behind Percy’s back and made out with Jason a couple of months ago.

“Nico, I am so sorry!” he had said, looking like he was close to tears.

“Sorry for what?” I asked, worried. Had he hurt somebody? Had he killed something?

“My role in the show, I’m gonna have to kiss Annabeth, but like, since I’m with you, that’s like, I dunno, I just feel bad!” I blinked.

“So… You’re apologising to me because you’re going to have to kiss Annabeth in a play?” Percy nodded, his expression reminding me distinctly of that of a kicked puppy. I sighed. “Come here.” I scooted over on my bed so that Percy could sit next to me, which he did.

“Are… Are you okay with it?” he asked me. I leaned in and kissed him softly. “It’s just a play, Percy…” He smiled and kissed me back.

“Okay…” He sighed. “I still really don’t want to do that scene with Annabeth, though..”  We both chuckled. “I guess I’ll just think of you while I’m doing it…” I felt another pang of guilt in my heart at his words. I simply nodded, forcing out a small smile.

The shadow sickness had been acting up again. The longer I was with Percy, the more it flared up. I needed to find a cure, and soon, if I wanted to stay with Percy. I had asked Will Solace, and he said he didn’t know of any cure except for to “do what the fates desire,” but I thought that was bullshit, so I set out to find something different (and better). I knew that there was one more person at camp who might be able to help me.

I knocked on the oracle’s door, feeling nervous.

“Come in,” Rachel said quietly from inside. I opened the door and stepped inside, looking around. Rachel smiled at me. “I haven’t seen you in a while, Nico. What’s up?” I bit my lip, deciding how to answer.

“Well, I guess I need some answers.” I shrugged.

“About what?”

“You know how I’ve got this shadow sickness?” Rachel nodded.

“You want me to tell you how to cure it because you think Will Solace’s idea was bullshit?” I blushed and nodded. She sighed and got up from where she had been sitting on the carpet. “Well… There is a way…”

“There is?” I gaped at her, excited.

“Calm down, Nico! It’s very dangerous. It only worked one in a hundred times.”

“I’ll try it! The worst thing that could happen would be that it won’t work, right?” Rachel shook her head.

“Wrong. If it doesn’t work, it could very well kill you.” We were both silent for a bit. After a while, I spoke.

“Tell me.” I looked her straight in the eyes. She looked away.

“Very well. Go to the forest. Collect two valerian sprigs and four mistletoe berries. That’s the easy part. Then you must collect a tablespoon of water from the River Styx. Crush the sprigs and the berries and mix them with the Styx water and drink it. By the next day you will either be cured… or you will be dead.” I nodded, listening. “Valerian sprigs look like little whitish-pink flowers on a stick that is also attached to a bright green leaf. Mistletoe berries are small, round, and white. In the forest, you can ask Clovis where the valerian is, as he uses it as decoration all over the Hypnos cabin. As for the mistletoe, ask Piper. The Aphrodite cabin is in charge of collecting it for our winter celebrations.”

“Thank you, Rachel.” She stopped me as I was turning to leave, and looked me straight in the eyes.

“You must be careful, Nico. Remember, you could die.” I nodded solemnly before exiting the dwelling.

Finding the plants was easy enough, but there was no way I was going to be able to get to the Underworld for at least a couple of months. For now, I would just work on my role in the show. It wasn’t that big, but it was fun. I knew that I was having a lot more fun with my role than Percy and Annabeth were having with theirs.

“Do I have to kiss her?” Percy frowned at the director. He and Annabeth were supposed to be rehearsing the song ‘16 Going On 17,’ and at the end, Percy was supposed to kiss her.

Annabeth crossed her arms.

“I agree. I don’t think we should have to kiss.” She huffed and Percy nodded. The director sighed.

“It’s just a kiss. Come on!”

“No!” shouted the two actors. The director looked at his watch.

“Let’s just continue this tomorrow, shall we? You can go. Next I need Jason to practice his song!” Percy and Annabeth glared at each other before going their separate ways. Percy walked over towards me. I frowned at him.

“Just kiss her, Percy. It’s for the show.”

“But I don’t want-”

“Percy. I’ve had to kiss Clarisse before for a show.” He chuckled at this. “You can kiss your Annabeth. It’s not that big of a deal.” Percy rolled his eyes.

“Fine, I’ll try it tomorrow. She might punch me, though.”

“That might do you some good.” I laughed. Percy shoved me playfully, also smiling. I was laughing with Percy until I heard music. I turned around to see Jason onstage, strumming a guitar.

“ _Edelweiss,_ ” he sang. “ _Edelweiss. Every morning you greet me._ ” His voice was enchanting. I sat down, watching him. “ _Small and white, clean and bright, you look happy to meet me._ ” He turned and made eye contact with me. I could see his face turning red. “ _Blossom of snow, may you bloom and grow, bloom and grow forever. Edelweiss, edelweiss, bless my homeland forever._ ” We were still gazing at each other when the song ended. I was so distracted by Jason, I didn’t notice Percy looking between us.

“You should get a haircut.” I blinked and looked at Percy, who had spoken. We were sitting on the beach. I was in his arms, and he was stroking my hair.

“Should I?” I asked, reaching up to take a strand of my hair in my fingers. He nodded.

“Yeah, I mean, you look great with long hair, but now it’s just getting messy.” I shrugged.

“I dunno. I… Okay, this is gonna sound really pathetic…”

“What is it?”

“I’m… kinda scared of barbers.” Percy had to hold in laughter.

“What? Why?” I chuckled.

“I dunno, I guess I don’t like the scissors. The razors they use also freak me out, too.” Percy grinned.

“How about, when you go to get a haircut, I’ll hold your hand the whole time to make sure you don’t die, okay?” I smiled and nodded.

“Thanks.”

“Anytime.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The only really important thing is that Nico is gathering ingredients for a potion to cure his shadow sickness, but there's a good chance that the potion will kill him instead of cure him. The last ingredient he needs is a tablespoon of water from the River Styx.


	19. Pretty Women

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> One more to go after this chapter, guys!  
> Sorry I haven't uploaded in a while. Life came crashing down on me like a shelf of breakable plates onto a white person in an infomercial.  
> Anyways, this play is Sweeney Todd! It's kind of a dark chapter, so sorry about that. But all happy endings will come in chapter 20, don't worry!
> 
> Jackiethegiantslayer guessed the play correctly, so they get a haiku!
> 
> Sorry it has been  
> A while since the last update  
> We're almost finished!
> 
> ALSO, because some random commenter (ShanleenKinnJaskey) decided to use their psychic powers to predict that the last chapter will have Wicked as it's show, you readers aren't getting any hints at the end of this chapter. Sorry lol
> 
> (read the notes at the end for a chapter summary, if you need to)

It was a wonder how the musical of the season seemed to match everyone’s mood. Things had really dulled down since the Sound of Music, to the point where the atmosphere at camp was downright depressing. Jason and I were still avoiding each other, as were Percy and Annabeth. Because of what Jason and I had done, I was distancing myself from Percy without really meaning to, and he had begun to notice. So now he was also distancing himself from me a bit. In addition, Piper kept complaining about how Jason wasn’t nearly as enthusiastic about their relationship, and I had to cringe at this every time because I knew why. So when the musical for this season was chosen to be one with a dreary, grey atmosphere, no one was surprised, and no one cared.

Sweeney Todd was a musical about a Barber who had lost his wife and daughter. He goes back to London, where he is from, and reopens his shop, but he is not nearly as cheerful as he was before. He thinks his wife is dead, and his daughter is in the custody of this awful man called Judge Turpin. Sweeney would like nothing better than to kill Judge Turpin. He makes friends with the lady who owns the meat pie shop downstairs, Mrs. Lovett, and the two of them go to an event about hair-cutting or something. The star of the event is Adolfo Pirelli, and he and Sweeney engage in a contest to see who can shave someone the best. Sweeney wins, and he gives Pirelli a complimentary shave back at his shop, where he kills the guy (I forget why). So Sweeney and Mrs. Lovett take in Pirelli’s assistant, a boy named Tobias. At some point they figure out that Sweeney can make use of the people he kills by giving the bodies to Mrs. Lovett so that she can make them into meat pies. Super weird, right? Anyways, that’s the basis of Sweeney Todd. It’s actually super interesting, and it’s now one of my favourite musicals (though it’s still not nearly as good as Hairspray).

The auditions were uneventful, but I was very satisfied with the cast list.

SWEENEY TODD CAST LIST

Sweeney Todd - Nico di Angelo

Mrs. Lovett - Annabeth Chase

Judge Turpin - Percy Jackson

Adolfo Pirelli - Will Solace

Anthony - Jason Grace

Beadle Bamford - Frank Zhang

Tobias Ragg - Leo Valdez

Johanna - Hazel Levesque

Old Woman - Piper McLean

With how downright dark and depressed I was nearly all the time, it was no wonder that I got cast as Sweeney Todd. I was extremely excited to play the role, although the darkness of the character really didn’t help me keep myself from finishing that potion that would potentially cure my shadow infection. I only needed one more ingredient- water from the River Styx. I was going to the Underworld to visit my father in about a week, and I wasn’t very confident that I would put my own life before the darkness. That’s what the darkness does to you. It corrupts.

The only ones who knew about the potion were me and Rachel, and she eyed me suspiciously every time we saw each other, though we never actually spoke. It seemed like I was just avoiding everyone nowadays. Thankfully, I still had Reyna and Hazel for company. They were really helpful. I did miss Percy and Jason, though. But Jason and I were still feeling guilty about what we had done, and well, I just didn’t want to have to face Percy, especially with this stupid shadow infection. Man, getting that last ingredient for the potion was really, really tempting, even though I knew that there was a good chance I would die if I took it.

Revisiting the Underworld simply brought with it more temptation for me to complete the potion. I had made it through most of my trip without succumbing, but… It beckoned me. As I was trying to leave, I felt a massive pull towards the River Styx. I had brought the materials I needed to collect the water, and I got them out of my backpack as I neared the bank of the river. I was going to do it. I was going to collect the last ingredient. I slipped on my dragonhide gloves and scooped a pure celestial bronze flask under the surface to collect the water. I brought the flask up and closed the lid tightly, thereby completing the task. The only thing I needed to do now was add the rest of the ingredients, and then I had to drink it. It almost shook me to the bone how close I was to either being cured, or to death. Well, if I did die, at least I knew I would be in Elysium. That thought gave me little comfort as I carried the foreboding filled flask back up into the mortal world.

For the show, we had busted out the fake blood supply that we had acquired when doing Repo. I got to get really messy with it, as I was the one who did all the killing. In the show, I got to kill Frank, Will, Percy, Annabeth, Piper, and myself! It was pretty cool. However, the shadow sickness was still ever-present, no matter how much I distanced myself from Percy. I had collected all the ingredients now, but I hadn’t mixed them together yet and I hadn’t drank the potion. I was scared. Although, the temptation was still there, as well. Whatever happened, I decided to wait until after the show to drink the potion, if I was going to drink it at all.

Rehearsals went by quickly, as did the show itself. Despite being one of my favourite shows, not much exciting really happened until after we had performed.

I didn’t go to the cast party. No, instead I had other plans. Potentially life-changing plans. Or, I suppose, life-ending plans.

I went back to my cabin and took a deep breath. Okay, I was going to do this. I got out the flask with the Styx water, as well as the jar with the other ingredients. I had borrowed a mortar and pestal from the Hephaestus cabin, and I put the valerian sprigs and mistletoe berries into it before crushing them into as fine of a powder as I could. I poured the powder into the Styx flask and stared at it for a bit. I was still scared. What if it really did kill me? I picked up the flask, eyeing it cautiously. I had to do it. I didn’t want to be stuck with this shadow sickness forever. Before I could change my mind, I took a deep breath and downed the flask.

The next thing I knew, I was in agonizing pain. It felt like I was burning from the inside out. Every part of me felt like it was on fire. I collapsed onto the floor of my cabin, writhing around. I don’t know if I was screaming or not; I could barely register anything other than the immense pain I was feeling. My vision went blurry, and then black. My mouth only tasted bitterness and burning, and my ears only heard chaos. After a while, I felt myself becoming numb to my senses, though I knew my body was still writhing on the floor. So this was what it felt like to die… Hopelessness. This was the end.

“No, that’s not possible…”

I could hear some echoey voices a few feet away. It sounded like… A girl and a boy?

“Well, I guess it is possible, because he’s completely stable. All bodily functions seem to be back to normal. The infection is still there, but-”

“Yes, I know. If it’s still there, then he should not be alive.” I opened my eyes slowly. My vision was a bit blurred, but I could make out the two people standing on either side of the bed I was laying in.

“What do you mean?” asked Will Solace, crossing his arms as he looked at Rachel. She sighed.

“This is my fault. He came to me asking for an alternative cure to his shadow infection. I gave him the instructions for a potion that would cure it, and I told him there was a good chance he would die. Obviously, he took the potion anyways.”

“Maybe he just messed up on some of the instructions?”

“I don’t think so. Either way, we need to ask him what he remembers after taking the potion when he wakes up.” Will nodded and turned to look at me.

“Nico! You’re awake!” My vision was better now. I could see Will and Rachel clearly. “Are you feeling okay?” asked Will. I nodded.

“D-did you say the infection was still there?” I asked, my voice coming out hoarse. Will nodded.

“I’m sorry, Nico…”

“Nico,” interjected Rachel. “What do you remember after taking the potion?” I thought for a moment about what had happened before describing the agonizing pain I had felt after drinking the potion. Rachel narrowed her eyes.

“Well, the potion was mixed correctly, there’s no doubt about it. You had the right reaction, judging by your account and by Jason’s account of how he found you.” I blinked. Jason was the one who had found me? “So… How are you alive? It should have killed you.” I shrugged. Honestly, I had no idea. Rachel sighed. “We gotta get Jason in here. Maybe he did something to stop it? I don’t know what he would have done, but… I mean, there’s only really one thing that can cure that sort of thing, so…” She turned to Will. “Can you go get Jason?” Will nodded.

“Also, uh, Percy’s been waiting outside for about half an hour. Can I let him in, or do you need more time with Nico?” Will asked.

“I suppose you can let him in,” replied Rachel. Will smiled and went to let Percy into the room before leaving to get Jason. Percy ran inside and over to my bed.

“Nico, oh thank the gods you’re awake! I was so worried!” Out of the corner of my eye I saw Rachel sigh a bit before leaving the room. “Are you alright? Are you hurting?”

“I-I’m fine, Percy..” My voice still sounded hoarse.

“Rachel said you almost died!” Percy took my hand and squeezed it. I smiled at him.

“But I survived.” I chuckled. Percy nodded, smiling a bit.

“Yeah, I guess you did.” He sighed. “I miss you. We haven’t been together as often recently…”

“I know. I miss you too…” Percy smiled before leaning down to kiss me. As our lips connected, a sharp pain shot through my body and I yelled in pain, pulling back. The shadow infection seemed to just be getting worse. I couldn’t even kiss Percy at all now, it seemed. Suddenly, the door banged open and Jason rushed in.

“Nico!” he yelled, obviously having heard my noise of pain. He spotted Percy, who was still sitting very close to me on the bed. “What did you do to him?!” he yelled, angrily, starting over towards Percy.

“Jason, stop!” I shouted at him. He stopped and looked at me, seeming to calm down a bit before glaring at Percy again and backing off.

“Sorry, just…” He sighed, looking away. “It’s been a rough night..”

“So, Jason,” said Rachel, looking annoyed. “Back to what we were discussing in the hallway, was there anything that happened, that maybe you did, that made a difference to whether or not Nico would have died?” Jason blushed.

“What? N-No, of course not!” He bit his lip, nervously. I narrowed my eyes. He looked like he was lying, but what could he have possibly done? It was confusing. Rachel narrowed her eyes as well.

“I see… Well, I guess we’re done here.”

‘Wait,” said Jason. “I-I want to see Nico. Alone, please…” He looked at Percy, who frowned.

“Hey, I just got here!”

“Percy,” I said, resting a hand on his arm. “Go get some sleep. You can come see me again after breakfast, if you want.” Percy looked at me, perhaps a bit hurt, and nodded.

“Alright. See you..” He kissed my cheek before getting up to leave with Rachel and Will. Jason glared at the door Percy had left through for a bit before sitting down on my bed with a sigh.

“Jason.”

“Hm?”

“What did you do when you found me? I know you were lying to Rachel…” He didn’t look at me.

“You really want to know?”

“Yes.” He sighed again.

“Well, after you stopped moving, I thought that was it, that I was never gonna get to see you again, so I…”

“You what?”

“I kissed you.” I blinked a bit.

“You kissed me?” He nodded. “Why?”

“I just said! I thought that was the end, that I’d never get another chance…” He sniffled a bit, and I realised that he was crying a little. I reached up to wipe away one of his tears.

“Jason…” I sighed. “You need to tell Piper.”

“And you need to tell Percy,” he said, finally looking at me. I looked away, guiltily.

“But.. Do you think that kiss was what saved me?” I asked. Jason shrugged.

“It was the only thing I did that was out of the ordinary. I don’t know.”

“Well… Thanks.”

“For what?”

“For saving my life, dumbass! Literally what we were just talking about.” I chuckled and he laughed.

“Yeah, that. Right.” He smiled and yawned.

“Have you been up all night?” I asked, noticing the circles under his eyes. Jason nodded, guiltily.

“I was worried…” I shook my head, smiling softly.

“You should get some sleep, too,” I said. Jason nodded.

“You’re probably right. I’ll… see you tomorrow, then?” He looked at me and I nodded. Before I could say anything, Jason leaned over and pressed a gentle kiss to my forehead. He then left, leaving me with a crushing dilemma. Should I tell Percy about my feelings for Jason?

The next morning, Percy was back in my hospital room and we were chatting. I was having fun talking to Percy, even if I couldn’t kiss him without having a shadow reaction.

“So… I’ve been uh, thinking a bit recently,” he said. “About Annabeth…”

“Oh?” I raised an eyebrow. “What about her?”

“Well, have you ever noticed her sitting in the window or standing on the stair? Something in her chills the air…” I listened to Percy go on. Perhaps this feeling of drifting apart in favor of another was mutual? “And it’s not just her! Well, mostly her, but like, _pretty women… Blowing out their candles or combing out their hair… Pretty women…_ ”

“I dunno, Percy. I never really noticed pretty women much.” We both chuckled at this.

“Yeah, I guess you wouldn’t. Even still, you must know that feeling… That feeling you get, you know the one?” I nodded. “ _Pretty women… At their mirrors-_ ”

“ _In their gardens-_ ” I added.

“ _Letter-writing-_ ”

“ _Flower-picking-_ ”

“ _Weather-watching… Pretty women…_ ” By now it was clear that I was not the only one Percy was thinking about anymore. And to be quite honest, I was fine with it. I had a hunch that he really did belong with Annabeth, and this just further proved it. That decided it. I had to tell him about my feelings for Jason. But… How?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nico/Jason/Percy are all avoiding each other  
> Nico takes the potion to try and cure his shadow sickness  
> It almost kills him, but doesn't, even though it should have  
> The shadow sickness gets worse  
> We figure out that Jason was the one who saved Nico with a kiss (but we don't know why the kiss worked)  
> Jason and Nico talk about their feelings a bit (not much, but a bit)  
> Percy is showing signs of still being in love with Annabeth  
> Nico decides he has to tell Percy about his feelings for Jason... but how?


	20. As Long As You're Mine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> lol so it's been a while  
> here are my excuses:  
> -I was in a really dark place from late May to early June  
> -I got out of the dark place when the summer started, but I was working every day all summer and was super busy  
> -When school started, the college application process kicked me in the balls  
> But now it's finished finally! I like this last chapter, so hopefully you will too.
> 
> I might post some more in this universe with these characters, but don't quote me on that.
> 
> So here you have it, the last show they're doing is Wicked, and everything gets resolved in this chapter! Look out for references to previous chapters (there's a bunch).

**Jason POV**

Hey, so, it’s me, Jason! Yeah. I figured it might be kinda cool to switch things up a bit, so you guys are going to get to hear my side of the story! At least for a bit of this chapter, that is.

So yeah, I’m Jason Grace, son of Jupiter. I like long walks on the beach, swordfighting, and I have a beautiful girlfriend, which is really complicated by the fact that, now I’ll admit, I’m in love with a boy named Nico di Angelo. I actually only realized how much I really loved him when we played Angel and Collins in Rent awhile back, but since then I haven’t been able to get him off of my mind. Unfortunately for me, he actually got with his long-time crush, Percy Jackson, not long after that show, but apparently he has feelings for me too, because I ended up doing the worst thing ever when I made out with him during Rocky Horror, effectively cheating on my girlfriend. I feel downright awful about it, and there’s nothing I can do to fix it. Piper doesn’t deserve that shit. She deserves the whole world and more! Which is why I need to tell her. And then she’s going to dump me, and I’m going to be okay with that. I just hope that Nico will be willing to take me after that. If he doesn’t, I don’t know what I’ll do.

And if all that doesn’t seem complicated enough, you should get a load of what’s going on in our musical this season.

I’m going to go ahead and assume that you’ve all seen Wicked, but I’ll give the brief plot really quickly anyways:

Wicked is basically the backstory for Elphaba and Glinda from the Wizard of Oz. They meet as college students and are forced to be roommates (they hate each other), they end up falling in love with the same boy named Fiyero, and then somehow they become best friends. Just watch the play. I know Nico gives great descriptions, but I don’t have that kind of patience (or, according to Nico and everyone else probably, intelligence).

The main cast for Wicked is pretty small, so Elphaba, Galinda, and Fiyero were all double-cast. The thing is, Aphrodite I guess decided to take some creative liberties with one of the casting choices? Of course, making everything way more complicated than they already were.

WICKED CAST LIST

Elphaba Thropp - Reyna Ramirez-Arellano, Nico di Angelo

Fiyero Tigelaar - Jason Grace, Percy Jackson

Galinda Upland - Piper McLean, Annabeth Chase

Nessarose Thropp - Hazel Levesque

Boq - Leo Valdez

Madame Morrible - Clarisse La Rue

Doctor Dillamond - Grover Underwood

The Wizard - Frank Zhang

I got the main male lead! Yay! Or not so, because in the show I would now have to basically pull a Percy and _almost_ marry my girlfriend but then actually end up with Nico instead. Speaking of which, remember that “creative liberty” that I was talking about? Yeah, Nico is one of the Elphabas. When asking about what they were going to do with this choice, Mr. D just said that everything would stay the same except for the pronouns, which I guess worked. But still, Aphrodite had to have known about this whole mess! Why does she always have to make love lives complicated…

 

My duets with Reyna, Annabeth and Piper weren’t very tense, at least not for now. With Nico though, it was a whole other story. Knowing what the both of us felt for one another but couldn’t say caused us both to be very awkward with our acting.

“Come on, boys!” Mr. D shouted through his megaphone. “Look like you like each other!” This just caused both Nico and I to blush madly. We caught each other’s gazes at the same time and promptly looked away. Mr. D sighed and just decided to move onto the next scene, which was probably for the best.

This had been going on for a few weeks now, and the more I thought about Nico, the more I distanced myself from Piper. Her, being a daughter of Aphrodite, obviously sensed that something not good was up. A week before the show, she cornered me as I was heading to the dining pavilion for dinner.

“Jason.” I turned to look at her, automatically intimidated by the tone of voice in which she had said my name. “You’ve been acting strangely. Why?” She simply looked at me, waiting for an answer. I opened my mouth to speak, but no words came out -- I didn’t know what to say. She sighed. “Look, Jason… I think… You like someone else. Is that correct?” At this, my ears turned red and I bit my lip awkwardly, basically signifying that yes, Piper was correct. As usual. She nodded a little, looking solemn. “Okay, so…”

“Piper, I… I made out with Nico. I cheated on you. I’m so sorry.” I said all of this very quickly and looked to the ground in a futile attempt to hide my shame, but Piper understood all of my words clearly. There was silence between us for a few moments, although I could hear my heart pounding heavily in my chest.

“Jason…” Piper said softly, after a while. I slowly looked up at her, ready to see the disappointed and hurt look on her face. The next thing I knew, I felt a sharp pain shoot across my face, starting at my left cheek. It took me a few seconds to realize that Piper had slapped me, but when I did, I knew that I really deserved it. I clutched my face in pain, looking at the ground. I didn’t have to see her face to know that Piper was glaring daggers at me.

“Jason,” she spat my name out like it was poison. “If you just liked someone else, we could have broken this up easily and it would have been fine. But because of what you did… That’s not fine.” I shut my eyes tight, beginning to feel tears well up, and not just because of the physical pain. I stood there as I heard Piper walk away from me. After a few more moments of just clutching my face, looking at the ground and crying, I looked up, only to notice that the whole camp at the dining pavilion had seen what had just happened. I found Nico’s face among them, sitting alone at the Hades table. He looked so guilty, like this was all his fault.. It just made me feel worse. I closed my eyes for another second before turning and walking to my cabin, clutching desperately to whatever dignity I had left.

**Nico POV**

I heard a loud noise coming from right outside the dining pavilion and turned around with the rest of the camp to see Piper slap Jason as hard as she could across the face. At that moment I knew two things: 1. that Piper and Jason were over, and 2. that is was all my fault. Piper said a few things that I couldn’t hear before walking away, leaving Jason just standing there, his face to the ground, looking absolutely pitiful. Seeing Jason like that was probably one of the worst emotional feelings I’ve ever had. After a few moments, Jason looked up at the crowd of campers now watching him. He caught my gaze and we shared a look of just simple sadness before Jason closed his eyes again and walked away.

I sat shocked in my seat for a good few minutes before Leo came over to me.

“What are you doing, man?” he asked. I looked up at him, close to tears.

“What… What do you mean?”

“Go after him,” Leo said, like it was the most obvious choice of action anyone could ever possibly take. “He needs you right now,” he whispered, just in case anybody was listening. I bit my lip and nodded before standing up and heading over to Jason’s cabin.

I entered the cabin without knocking to find Jason sitting on his bed, his head in his hands. I walked over to sit down beside him before putting my arms around him and leaning against him. He leaned back against me to signify that he appreciated my gesture. He soon turned around to face me so that he could pull me in for a real hug. I held him tightly as he cried into my shoulder. The breakup with Piper was sure to be hard for him regardless of the circumstances, but the fact that she had slapped him in front of the entire camp, while justifiable, was extremely damaging to Jason’s current self-esteem.

“N-Nico,” Jason cried. “I-If Percy d-does something l-like that t-to you, I s-swear I’ll k-kill him…” I shook my head vehemently.

“No, Jason… Whatever Percy’s reaction is will probably be justified…” I furrowed my brow, suddenly worried about what exactly Percy’s reaction might be. Jason raised his head to look at me before leaning in to kiss me softly, yet with the full force of his emotions behind him. I kissed him back, very softly cupping his hurt cheek. He pulled back and sniffled.

“Funny… I feel a bit better now…” We both chuckled. He pulled me close to his chest. I breathed in his scent, basking in the warmth that he enveloped around me. “Nico… No matter what happens, I want you to know… I love you.” I was so shocked and overjoyed by this sudden statement that I couldn’t bring myself to say anything back, instead choosing to nuzzle my face into his chest. What seemed like a long time passed before either of us moved or said anything. Eventually, I raised my head to look at Jason.

“I’ll stay here with you tonight,” I said. Jason smiled.

“You will?” he asked.

“Of course.” I smiled back. “Being with you helps me sleep. I’ve… I’ve got a big day tomorrow.”

“Oh? What’s tomorrow?” I sighed.

“I’m going to end things with Percy.”

I was rehearsing with Percy as Fiyero the next day. I tried not to be too nervous or awkward during our song.

 _“Kiss me too fiercely, hold me too tight. I need help believing you’re with me tonight,”_ I sang. _“My wildest dreamings could not foresee lying beside you with you wanting me.”_ Honestly, that line was very true when it came to Percy. Until he had kissed me that day at the beach, I had never imagined actually getting to be with him as anything more than a friend. And after today, it was going to end. _“And just for this moment, as long as you’re mine, I’ve lost all resistance and crossed some borderline. And if it turns out it’s over too fast, I’ll make every last moment last, as long as you’re mine…”_

“Percy..” We were backstage after rehearsal, and I decided that if I was going to end things, it would have to be now.

“Nico, what’s up?” he asked. “I, uh..” He shifted a bit, awkwardly. “I have something to tell you too, actually…” I blinked, not expecting this.

“Oh, uh, okay. You go first then.”

“You sure?” I nodded. “Ah, alrighty. Well…” He frowned at me. “Nico, I’m really super sorry but I’m still in love with Annabeth..” I was genuinely surprised that he had said this to me. I didn’t expect him to even figure that out for another few weeks or so. Percy looked at me, awaiting my response, his countenance betraying a frightened expression.

“I… I know,” I said.

“Wait, you know?” He seemed perplexed. I nodded.

“To be honest, I’ve kinda always had a hunch that you two were meant to be, but… I was selfish. When I saw my chance to be with you, I jumped at it. Percy, I… I’ve had a huge crush on you ever since I was ten… Remember, when we first met?” Percy blinked and smiled.

“Really? You have? That’s adorable…” He shook his head, remembering what he had just told me. “But then… Nico, I’m so sorry.” He started pacing, smacking himself on the head with his hand. “Gods, all I ever do is hurt you! I’m such a douchebag. I’m so, so sorry, Nico-”

“Percy, Percy stop!” I put my hands on both of his shoulders and got him to face me. “It’s okay! Because… I’m in love with someone else, too…” He looked at me.

“Jason,” he said, simply. I was surprised again.

“How… How do you…?”

“Only true love’s kiss can cure that shadow thing you’ve got. I overheard Rachel and Will talking about it. That’s when I knew that we shouldn’t be together. It was never me, it was always Jason…” I thought about what Percy had said. True love’s kiss… Jason was my true love?

“Percy, I… I did love you. For many years, you were all I ever thought about.” I smiled.

“Nico… You’re amazing, you know that? I swear, your life’s purpose is probably to be a good person and to make other people happy by just being yourself, because that’s what you do. I’ve wronged you in huge ways, and yet you still care about me, and you manage to make people happy when you talk to them, and especially when you perform. You’re so forgiving… Like, people always say that children of Hades hold bad grudges, but I think the only grudge you’ve really ever held was against yourself…” I was touched by Percy’s words.

“Percy…” He reached up to cup my cheek.

“I love you, alright? You’re one of the best people I know, and the best friends I’ve ever had.” I nodded, smiling through threatening tears.

“I-I feel the same way…” I sniffled. “Percy… Before I leave, just… One last kiss?” Percy blinked.

“But… Won’t it hurt you?” I shook my head.

“I don’t think it will this time.” Percy smiled before leaning in to kiss me one last time, his arms coming up to circle around me. I tangled my fingers in his hair, knowing in my heart that this was the last time we were going to do this. And it didn’t hurt. It felt wonderful. We pulled away and I rested my forehead against his. “It didn’t hurt because…” I looked into Percy’s eyes. “It’s just another form of true love…” Percy grinned and hugged me, and in that moment I knew that we were going to remain close friends for the rest of our lives. When I walked away that day, I didn’t notice until later that I could no longer feel the shadow infection. I couldn’t feel nothing at all.

Jason found me sitting on a bench outside by the lake, smiling to myself. He sat down beside me.

“What are you so happy about?” he asked. I turned to look at him.

“Remember, back when we did Avenue Q, our first show, there was that song about purpose?” Jason nodded. “Well, when I did that song, I got thinking about what my purpose was…”

“You found it?” Jason asked. I shook my head.

“Percy found it. My purpose.” Jason’s face fell.

“So… You’re still together…?” I shook my head again, still smiling.

“We broke things off. It was actually a mutual thing. I knew Percy was still in love with Annabeth…” Jason grinned at me.

“And it went well?”

“Yeah.” I grinned back. It was at that moment that Jason leaned in to kiss me happily, not caring about who might be watching. I kissed him back, because really, what did we have to hide anymore?

Piper had been my main acting partner and good friend since I started acting, and I knew that if we were going to make this show work, I had to talk to her. What I didn’t expect, however, was for her to approach me first, instead of the other way around.

“Hey, Nico.” She sat down next to where I was sitting in the audience seats, waiting for my next scene. I turned to her.

“Piper, I’ve been meaning to talk to you. Look, about Jason, I’m really, really sorry, the whole thing was my fault and-”

“Nico. I forgive you.” I blinked, puzzled.

“You… You do?” She nodded, smiling softly.

“Things were going to end between Jason and I sooner or later. And besides, I could tell that you two had a special connection from the get-go. It just hasn’t ever been as clear as it has been recently.” She sighed. “Besides, I’ve been meaning to ask Reyna whether or not she’s ever made out with a daughter of love before.” She giggled, borderline maniacally, at the expression I was wearing. “Go!” she shouted, suddenly. “It’s your scene with Jason!” I came to my senses and ran up onstage to run my song with Jason.

Jason took my hand as he began to sing.

 _“Maybe I’m brainless, maybe I’m wise, but you’ve got me seeing through different eyes. Somehow I’ve fallen under your spell, and somehow I’m feeling it’s up that I fell.”_ Then together we sang, and it was the best we had ever performed together.

_“Every moment, as long as you’re mine, I’ll wake up my body, and make up for lost time!”_

_“Say there’s no future for us as a pair,”_ sang Jason before I joined him for the last bit of the song.

 _“And though I may know, I don’t care! Just for this moment, as long as you’re mine, come be how you want to, and see how bright we shine! Borrow the moonlight until it is through, and know I’ll be here, holding you, as long as you’re mine…”_ Jason studied my face.

“What is it?” he asked.

“It’s just,” I said, feeling for the first time in a long time that I had finally found a home, with people who truly loved me. “For the first time, I feel… Wicked.”

The shows were huge successes. We had four this time, two with me as Elphaba and two with Reyna. I had received flowers (fake, otherwise they’d die), chocolates, plushies, all that shit from people who came to see me, including but not limited to my dad, and even Persephone gave me a small bouquet of meadowsweets, basil, and geraniums. The last show, however, got the most positivity out of all of them, not for the show itself, but for the curtain call.

Reyna was performing as Elphaba for the last show, and I was one of the townspeople. So, I was already onstage when all of the main characters took their bows. What was weird though, was that instead of Percy coming out third-to-last, Reyna did instead. She took her bows and stood off to the side as Percy came onstage with a confused-looking Annabeth. Annabeth took her bow first before gesturing to Percy, who, instead of bowing, got down on one knee once again to proclaim his love for the girl.

“Wise girl,” he shouted over the applause, which soon went silent in anticipation. “I’ve been thinking a lot and…” He pulled out the ring that Annabeth had at some point literally thrown back at him about a year ago. “Would you wanna give things another shot?” He grinned at her expectantly. She raised her eyebrows before sighing and taking the ring.

“I can never stay away from you for long, Seaweed Brain.” She grinned back at him before he jumped up and hugged her tightly as the audience and the rest of the cast and crew all cheered.

For the cast party, we all went out to a karaoke club to hang out. Because we sold so many tickets, we were actually able to buy out a room for the night. I knew something fun was going to happen when Jason went up to the microphone.

“So, uh, I decided on an old favorite from a few shows ago. It’s a duet, so, Nico? Join me?” I smiled and stepped onstage. My heart leapt when the music started. I recognized the song instantly.

_“Live in my house, I’ll be your shelter. Just pay me back with one-thousand kisses. Be my lover, and I’ll cover you.”_

_“Open your door, I’ll be your tenant. Don’t got much baggage to lay at your feet,”_ Jason sang. _“But sweet kisses I’ve got to spare. I’ll be there and I’ll cover you.”_ We sang together.

_“I think they meant it when they said you can’t buy love. Now I know you can rent it. A new lease you are, my love. On life, be my life! Just slip me on, I’ll be your blanket. Wherever, whatever, I’ll be your coat.”_

_“You’ll be my king, and I’ll be your castle!”_ I smiled at Jason.

 _“No, you’ll be my queen, and I’ll be your moat!”_ He smiled back before we sang together again.

_“I think they meant it when they said you can’t buy love. Now I know you can rent it. A new lease you are, my love. On life, oh my life! I’ve longed to discover something as true as this is!”_

_“So, with a thousand sweet kisses, I’ll cover you.”_

_“If you’re cold and you’re lonely!”_

_“With a thousand sweet kisses, I’ll cover you.”_

_“You’ve got one nickel only! With a thousand sweet kisses, I’ll cover you.”_

_“When you’re worn out and tired!”_

_“With a thousand sweet kisses, I’ll cover you.”_

_“When your heart has expired!”_ We sang together once more.

 _“Oh, lover! I’ll cover you! Oh, lover! I’ll cover you…”_ As the song ended, I mimicked what I had done back in Rent, which seemed like such a long time ago, and leaned up to kiss Jason sweetly on the lips.

“I love you,” he whispered to me.

“I love you, too.”

Days later, Jason and I were sitting on a blanket in the forest, having a picnic. I was playing with some edelweiss that was growing on the forest floor.

“You know, I think I’m going to take a break from the next musical,” I said, idly.

“Yeah, me too. They’re fun, but they’re exhausting.” Jason chuckled. I smiled, leaning into him.

“What do you think the next one is going to be?” I asked. Jason shrugged.

“Well, whatever it is,” he said. “We should go see it together.” I nodded.

“Yeah, we should.”

“Alright, it’s a date!” I grinned, remembering the first time Jason had said those words to me, before either of us had been in any shows, and I knew that if he had been serious about the date the first time too, I wouldn’t have turned him down back then, either.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note: meadowsweets symbolize uselessness, basil was used in Ancient Greece to symbolize hatred (how appropriate), geraniums symbolize foolishness. Hooray for passive-aggressive flower meanings!
> 
> Hey guys!  
> Thanks a shitton for reading my fanfic! You're all my faves. I'm going to start really trying to focus on my novel for now but I do have some more Percy Jackson fanfics in the works (mainly just half-baked ideas but whatever).  
> One idea is a short sequel to this fanfic, two more involve main characters that are ocs of mine, and the last one is more of a guilty pleasure fic
> 
> The first OC one already has a first chapter that's published on my account (The Day the Demon Crash-Landed at Camp), if you want to check it out. If I do more with it, it will be the demon (male oc) x Nico. In that fanfic, I will elaborate on the Judeo-Christian aspect of the Riordan world (obv it will have my own twist on it), which will be demon-centric for the purposes of the fic.
> 
> The second one is a really fucking sad fanfic around another male OC of mine who is a son of Neptune, set directly after the Giant War (with a whole bunch of flashbacks to reveal backstory). This OC was raised amidst darkness and tragedy, and as a result he didn't learn how to control water -- instead he controls ice. He also knows all the aspects of bloodbending that Percy's always been curious about, so I have fun exploring that area.
> 
> The guilty pleasure fic... Well, it's... Basically Nico is a young adult (like mid-20s), and ends up having a "thing" with Poseidon because, like, why not tbh. It ends up being like a romantic comedy sort of thing? Yeah.
> 
> If you guys feel particularly strongly about really wanting one of these fanfics to come into reality, say so in the comments so I know which ones to work on first!
> 
> Thanks so much! It's been a fun ride. <33333  
> -Michael W.


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